Periodontal Disease Prevention & Treatment

Periodontitis, alternatively referred to as a periodontal disease, is a severe infection of the gums that damages the soft tissue and, if left untreated, destroys the bone supporting the teeth. As a result, your teeth can loosen or fall out if you develop periodontitis.

Periodontal disease is common, affecting 70 percent of adults in the US, and is recognized as the main cause of adult tooth loss. However, the condition is likely preventable because it results from poor dental hygiene. Brushing twice daily, flossing once, and checkups from your dentist in Providence, RI can help prevent the need for periodontitis treatment if the condition progresses to advanced stages.

Periodontal Disease Symptoms

Your gums appear pink and fit snugly around your teeth when healthy. However, if you have periodontal disease, you notice bright red, dusky, purplish, swollen, and puffy gums. In addition, your gums will tender to touch and bleed easily when brushing and flossing, leaving you with a peak-tinged toothbrush after brushing.

You might spit out blood when brushing and flossing and develop lousy breath. Besides the above, you might notice new gaps developing between your teeth and find chewing painful. Your gums start receding from your teeth, making them appear longer than usual. You might also observe changes in your bite.

When to Contact Dentists?

You must follow your dentist’s recommendation and schedule regular checkups if you observe the symptoms of periodontal disease or visit the dentist every six months to ensure you don’t have any infections in your mouth. Seeking early care is optimal to stop periodontal disease in its tracks to prevent the need to seek gum disease treatment in Providence, RI, which might include procedures like scaling and root planing and surgical procedures at high prices if your condition has worsened to severe. Therefore the sooner you prevent gum disease, the better for you to avoid intensive dental procedures needing time and multiple visits besides money to maintain a condition you wish you had earlier.

Prevention of Periodontal Disease

Generally, periodontal disease starts when dental plaque, a sticky film of bacteria, accumulates on your teeth because of improper brushing. Dental plaque remaining on the is an invitation for the infection to make its presence felt in your mouth. In addition, when you leave dental plaque on your teeth, it hardens into tartar, is filled with bacteria, and is challenging to remove without help from dentists. The longer dental plaque and tartar remain on your teeth, the more severe damage they create.

As you cannot get rid of tartar by brushing and flossing, you must seek professional teeth cleaning from your dentist to fight the earliest stage of this condition, gingivitis. Dental plaque is responsible for causing gingivitis which is comfortably reversible with professional care and good oral hygiene. However, if you ignore the situation, the ongoing gum inflammation progresses to periodontitis, causing the development of pouches between your teeth and gums to fill them with plaque and bacteria. With time the pockets become deeper when left untreated, causing loss of tissue and bone and eventually resulting in tooth loss. Ongoing chronic inflammation also puts a strain on your immune system.

Treatment for Periodontal Disease

Periodontal disease has several treatments depending on the stage and severity of the infection affecting you. Your dentist will diagnose your condition and review your medical history. They will also measure the pocket depths and take dental x-rays, looking for areas of bone loss to assign a stage for your condition depending on its severity.

Periodontists, dentists, or dental hygienists can perform treatment for periodontal disease. The professionals aim to comprehensively clean the pockets around your gums to prevent damage to the surrounding bone. Your chances of succeeding with the treatment increase significantly if you adopt good oral care practice, manage health issues that might impact dental health and quit tobacco use.

If you don’t find relief from nonsurgical treatments like scaling, root planing, and antibiotics, you might require advanced therapies in the form of dental surgery, including laser gum surgery to reduce the pockets between your teeth and gums and other procedures such as bone grafting, guided tissue regeneration, and tissue stimulating proteins. However, the therapies require lifelong maintenance with quarterly visits to your dentist instead of the routine six monthly meetings. In addition, treatment for periodontal disease costs a lot more than six monthly dental cleanings to keep your mouth in optimal condition.

Preventive Techniques for Periodontal Disease

If you are looking to prevent periodontal disease from coming close to your mouth, you can use the following techniques to avoid having a lifelong unwanted companion demanding of plenty of attention and expenses. Here is an affordable approach to preventing periodontal disease instead of seeking expensive treatment.

Brush your teeth twice daily using a soft-bristled toothbrush and replace it every quarterly. Floss once daily, regardless of the time, and use an antiseptic mouthwash to rinse your mouth and eliminate plaque between your teeth. Quit smoking or chewing tobacco and get frequent exams and cleanings from dentists to prevent periodontal disease in any form affecting your mouth.

Regular dental checkups help professionals detect early signs of gum disease and present a treatment plan to control the condition in the initial stages. If you ignore the early stages of gum disease and allow it to advance, the infection contains your life, your mouth, and everything besides making you vulnerable to frequent and expensive treatments from specialists to prevent the condition from affecting your general health.

Drs Rubinstein and Ducoff deliver effective remedies for early and advanced periodontal disease providing different therapies for every stage of the condition. If you experience the symptoms of this infection, meeting the professionals immediately helps prevent a devastating condition from developing in your mouth.