Gum health is just as important to tooth health for many different reasons. For one, healthy gums ensure that your teeth have a stable place to live! That’s precisely why gum disease is the leading cause of tooth loss in the United States and around the world. Gum tissue that has become tender, red, swollen or sensitive in any way is a sign that you need to visit our dental office right away. We have many forms of periodontal (gum) disease treatment in Mesquite to get your gum health back to normal and prevent future infections from developing.
Typically, we’ll use scaling and root planing as the first line of defense against advanced cases of gum disease. While on the surface the treatment may seem similar to a regular dental cleaning, there is an important distinction: it focuses on getting rid of harmful bacteria from the area beneath the gumline, thus fighting the infection of your gums at the source. When it comes to improving the health of your gums, scaling and root planing can be an important step.
On your own, it can be difficult to determine whether scaling and root planing are necessary. As such, you should get in touch with our team as soon as you have any reason to think that you may be suffering from gum disease. After examining your mouth, our dentists can determine what kind of treatment might be needed to help keep your smile safe.
Here are some possible warning signs that you may need scaling and root planing soon:
Scaling and root planing are often collectively referred to as deep cleaning. Here is what you can expect during each step:
While we will use a local anesthetic to make sure that you don’t experience any discomfort during the actual scaling and root planing process, your mouth will need some time to recover afterward. Here are some tips for making sure there aren’t any problems while your mouth is healing:
Since we do not want to put your gum tissue in harm’s way while performing periodontal therapy, we ask our patients to undergo scaling, root planing and antibiotic therapy every three to four months. We cannot stress enough how important at-home care is for treatment, but that doesn’t mean we can complete your therapy in a single appointment. Routine follow-up appointments will ensure that your gums are healing as expected and give your gums time to heal in between appointments. We will make adjustments if healing is not going as planned.
We want to maintain as much of your healthy gum tissue as possible when completing treatment, which is why our dental office uses laser dental tools. Stopping gum disease from spreading while maintaining healthy tissue has never been easier thanks to laser dentistry! This highly advanced device not only allows for more precise removal of infected or decayed tissue but heals gum tissue on contact. With faster healing, you spend less time worrying about aftercare and our dental office doesn’t have to use metal dental tools or stitches!