Periodontal Therapy

If you have red or swollen gums, pain, or loose teeth, you may have periodontal disease. To relieve your pain and renew your smile, reach out to Dental Studios, with locations in Summit and Westfield, New Jersey, to find out if periodontal therapy can help you. Led by Drs. Daniel Butensky and Richard Procopio, Dental Studios can help you regain your gum health, no matter the stage of your periodontal disease. To learn more, or to schedule a consultation, call or use the online booking tool today.

What is periodontal therapy?

Periodontal therapy is the treatment offered to those with any form of periodontal disease. Periodontal diseases are infections that impact the structures that hold your teeth in place, including your gums, your periodontal ligaments, and your alveolar bone.

When people refer to periodontal disease, they most often mean gum diseases including:

  • Gingivitis
  • Peri-implant mucositis
  • Peri-implantitis, and periodontal disease
  • Aggressive periodontitis
  • Chronic periodontitis
  • Necrotizing periodontal disease

Gum disease develops when you permit plaque, a sticky bacteria, to build up on your teeth and harden. If you don’t intervene, gum disease eventually destroys your gums and teeth.

What are the symptoms of gum disease?

Gum disease causes varying symptoms, such as:

  • Swollen, tender, or puffy gums
  • Bleeding gums
  • Red or purplish gums
  • Bad breath
  • Pus between the teeth and gums
  • Loose or lost teeth
  • New spaces in between teeth
  • Painful chewing
  • Gum recession
  • Change in how your teeth line up when you bite

Also, untreated periodontal disease is associated with an increased risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and respiratory illnesses

How does periodontal therapy work?

Periodontal therapy works in phases, which Dental Studios adjusts according to your periodontal health. 

Phase one

During phase one of periodontal therapy, your team focuses on controlling your infection by finding its source and addressing it. Controlling your infection is a team effort and involves work on your part as well as your Dental Studios team.

To help you do your part, the practice explains why your periodontal health is suffering, and what changes you need to make to stop its advances, such as improving your oral hygiene or smoking cessation.

In turn, Dental Studios offers non-surgical treatments like scaling and root planing, which is a procedure in which your team meticulously removes plaque and tartar from deep periodontal pockets and smooths your tooth roots to banish bacterial toxins.

They may supplement this treatment with add-on therapies, like antibiotics. 

Phase two

If non-surgical therapy isn’t enough, or your infection is too deep to clean, Dental Studios may suggest you move to surgical periodontal therapy. 

To surgically treat periodontal disease, your team may perform specified surgeries, such as gum graft surgery or extraction. 

During this procedure, your team harvests healthy gum tissue from somewhere like the roof of your mouth and grafts it where gingivitis has forced your gum line to recede. After a successful gum graft surgery, your healthy tissue either covers exposed tooth roots or develops new gum tissue.

If Dental Studios cannot save your teeth, the practice can extract your damaged teeth, and replace them with dental implant restorations, a bridge, or dentures.

Phase three

The third phase and final phase of periodontal therapy is maintenance, during which it’s your job to make sure that your periodontal disease doesn’t come back. You do so by observing good oral hygiene habits. 

Don’t let poor periodontal health take over your life. Instead, seek out periodontal therapy with the gifted team at Dental Studios online or over the phone today.