Gum Disease Treatment – Hoover, AL
Experience a New Kind of Gum Disease Therapy
Advanced gum disease affects approximately half of American adults that are 30 years of age and older. This includes conditions like periodontitis, which cannot be treated with at-home oral care or a professional cleaning alone. Instead, it requires a more comprehensive approach to treatment. At Moulton Dentistry of Hoover, our team makes use of not only advanced technologies but effective techniques to remove harmful plaque and restore your infected gum tissue as much as possible. If your gums feel sensitive or look severely inflamed, don’t wait to call our dental office directly to start gum disease treatment in Hoover.
Why Choose Moulton Dentistry of Hoover for Gum Disease Treatment?
- Soft Tissue Laser Therapy Improves Precision and Comfort
- Sedation Dentistry Available for Nervous Patients
- Calaject Technology Eases Local Anesthetic Administration
Scaling & Root Planing
Treatment for advanced gum disease starts with a process known as scaling and root planing. Scaling is a common procedure that involves removing plaque and tartar from the surface of teeth, both above and below the gum line. This prevents future inflammation and infection of gum tissue. Root planing is designed to smooth out the roots of teeth so that the gums can reattach to the teeth. This effectively addresses gum recession, which occurs during the advanced stages of gum disease.
What Does Scaling and Root Planing Entail?
Before he can perform scaling and root planing, Dr. Moulton needs to complete a detailed examination of your mouth. This means he’ll likely need to capture X-rays to collect as much information as possible. He’ll recommend scaling and root planing if he believes that there is a large amount of tartar present. Depending on the condition of your gums, the depth of your gum pockets and the progression of periodontitis, he may recommend gum disease treatment with scaling and root planing. He may also recommend local anesthesia during your procedure in some cases.
What Is Scaling?
In order to remove calculus and plaque from tooth surfaces, Dr. Moulton will perform a scaling procedure. During your treatment, he’ll focus on plaque and tartar that sits beneath the gum line and along the root. To complete the scaling process, our dental office uses an ultrasonic scaling tool. This device also provides consistent irrigation during treatment, which applies antimicrobial agents below the gums. These agents promote the healing of gum tissue.
What Is Root Planing?
In order to remove cementum and surface dentin that is deep inside unwanted microorganisms, toxins, and tartar, we perform root planing. By smoothing the root of your tooth, we can promote healing and prevent bacteria from easily developing later.
What Are Antibiotic Treatments for Gum Disease?
With chemical agents or mouth rinses, we can help you control the growth of bacteria that creates toxins and leads to periodontitis. Dr. Moulton may prescribe these antibiotics and irrigation methods to control your infection and accelerate normal healing.
It can become difficult for Dr. Moulton to thoroughly remove plaque and tartar if deep pockets have formed in between the teeth and gums. It’s rare that patients are able to keep these pockets free of plaque, which is why surgery may be needed to restore your periodontal health to the fullest.
How Gum Disease Treatment Can Benefit You
Scaling and root planing treatment can have numerous benefits when successful. Not only can we prevent dental disease, but we can remove bacteria that has been proven to increase the risk of other systemic conditions in the body. Thanks to years of research, we now know that bacteria that cause gum disease can permeate through gum tissue and access the bloodstream. This can lead to heart and respiratory diseases.
Furthermore, gum disease treatment helps us reduce your risk for potential tooth loss. The risk for periodontal disease increases when your gum pockets exceed 3mm in depth. Bacteria can easily multiply in deeper pockets, which then leads to a chronic inflammatory response in the body. This causes the body to destroy gingival and bone tissue, causing teeth to lose their foundation and fall out.
Lastly, scaling and root planing can also improve your mouth’s overall appearance. It should also work to reduce your halitosis, a common symptom of gum infection. During your treatment, you can expect Dr. Moulton to remove superficial stains from your tooth enamel, which is a nice added bonus to your scaling and root planing procedure.
Laser Periodontal Therapy
Typically, metal dental instruments would be used to perform scaling and root planing. Thanks to modern advances in dental technology, we can perform this same treatment in a more precise and comfortable way. Our soft tissue laser can remove infected tissue more accurately, making it easier to retain healthy existing tissue. Additionally, because the laser cauterizes tissue immediately following contact, you can expect less bleeding and less time needed for healing during your aftercare.
How Periodontal Laser Therapy Works
Traditional gum surgery with metal dental instruments is a fairly invasive procedure that involves slicing, sutures and long, often painful recovery.
In contrast, periodontal laser therapy harnesses the power of a tiny laser beam – approximately the thickness of three hairs – to eradicate infected gum tissue, remove hardened plaque build-up and even re-contour damaged bone.
Using a slow sweeping motion, Dr. Moulton can focus the narrow laser beam on a specific number of cell layers in order to precisely remove the diseased tissue while preserving as much healthy tissue as possible.
This gentle treatment offers the maximum comfort for our patients while still delivering the optimum results needed to restore their oral health.
What Are the Benefits of Laser Gum Disease Treatment?
When it comes to treating unhealthy gums, advanced laser treatment offers a number of advantages over traditional gum disease surgery, such as:
- Enhanced comfort – Many patients find the noninvasive treatment to be significantly less painful than traditional surgery.
- Precise results – With laser technology, dentists can more precisely target the infection and reduce bleeding, pain and swelling.
- Shorter procedure – Periodontal laser therapy can often be completed in just two visits to the dentist office (plus follow-up appointments), whereas traditional surgery can require as many as four 1-hour visits.
- Faster recovery time – With an average recovery time of less than 24 hours, patients who opt for laser therapy can quickly resume their normal daily routines.
- Fewer diet restrictions – Most patients feel healthy enough to resume eating many of their favorite foods shortly after periodontal laser therapy. In some cases, Dr. Moulton may recommend a soft diet for just a couple of days.
Laser Gum Disease Treatment Recovery Tips
As mentioned, compared to traditional gum surgery, recovery following periodontal laser therapy is usually a breeze! However, we still have a few general tips for you to follow after you undergo gum disease treatment in Hoover:
- #1: Keep your mouth clean – Be sure to keep bacteria away from the treatment site by rinsing your mouth every three hours with warm salt water, or as directed by Dr. Moulton.
- #2: Rest up – Even though laser therapy is a noninvasive procedure, you should still give your body a little down time immediately following treatment.
- #3: Hydrate – Keep a water bottle handy at home and at work, as staying hydrated will help your body heal.
- #4: Avoid certain foods – Hard, crunchy and tough foods (eg., chips, seeds, nuts, gum and tough meats) require aggressive chewing and should be avoided while you recover.
- #5: Expect changes – If the tissues involved in the therapy change to purple, blue or yellow afterwards, don’t panic! Any color changes are temporary and will soon subside.