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Periodontal disease occurs in two stages. The first is called gingivitis, and the more advanced one is called periodontitis. At Maryland Center for Periodontics and Dental Implants, we are committed to treatment. But more important than that, our periodontics in Pikesville is committed to helping you prevent it in the first place, or at least stopping it before it can progress.
A nutritious diet that limits your intake of sugar is the primary way to avoid the formation of plaque, which is responsible for both tooth decay and gum disease. And when you brush after meals and floss at least once daily, you will remove the majority of plaque from your mouth. But it's not always easy to get all of it. Plaque is stubborn and it can hide in your gum pockets and between teeth, out of the reach of your oral hygiene efforts. When plaque stays in your mouth, it hardens into tartar, which is then impossible to remove except with a professional cleaning. All the while, plaque and tartar can irritate, inflame, and eventually infect your gums. That's when you want to turn to our periodontics in Pikesville to address the problem.
The good news is that during a checkup, even subtle signs of gingivitis, ones that you may not even notice yourself, can be detected, allowing for an opportunity to stop periodontal disease right in its tracks. The same type of cleaning that you normally get as part of a twice-yearly dental exam, done as part of our periodontics in Pikesville, will typically also serve to reverse any initial indications of gum disease. In some cases, a second go-round of cleaning may be required to do a complete job.
If gingivitis is not treated promptly, the next step is periodontitis. The symptoms then are generally unmistakable, and they include persistent bad breath, reddened, bleeding gums, and even loose teeth. Scaling and root planing, a deeper type of cleaning that requires the use of hand scraping and/or ultrasonic tools to get down to the roots, is usually necessary at that point. Surgical procedures, like pocket reduction surgery and soft tissue grafts are used in the most severe situations as part of our periodontics in Pikesville.
By Maryland Center for Periodontics & Dental Implants
November 11, 2015
