How Houston Dentists Get Rid of Periodontal Pockets
Ideally, jaw bones and gum tissue should fit tightly together. A good analogy would be the snug fit of a turtleneck sweater around the human neck. However, periodontal disease can destroy supporting tissue and bone if not caught quickly enough. This supporting tissue is vital to keeping the gumline snug and tight with the bone: but if it is diminished, pockets will form around the teeth.
This does not happen all at once, however, so there is hope. Periodontal disease occurs in stages. These stages are gingivitis (an early and reversible condition), mild Periodontitis, moderate Periodontitis, and severe Periodontitis.
Periodontal pockets begin to develop during mild Periodontitis. They become progressively deeper as gum disease progresses. As they increase in size, bacteria have more space to breed and thrive. As they begin to accumulate, they advance beneath the gum tissue and begin attacking the deeper tissues beneath the skin. Eventually the bacteria become so prevalent and strong they begin to attack the bone as well.
People find it hard to believe that bacteria can eat away at bone like this, but they can. Even worse, bone loss will eventually cause tooth loss. This is because the teeth become so loose in a diminishing jaw line that they cannot function properly and will experience sensitivity and pain when exposed to hot and cold, and when any amount of normal bite pressure is applied.
Once this happens, the teeth will need to be extracted, and replacing them with a bridge or dental will be very expensive. Most people opt for cheaper dentures, but these never really do the job as well as more advanced tooth replacements.
Fortunately, our team of cosmetic dentists at the Medical Center Dental Group can do a lot for patients who are facing the apparent inevitability of tooth extraction. In fact, our cosmetic dentists routinely retain teeth that a lot of dentists may otherwise extract. We are able to do this because of ultra-sophisticated laser technology, and a procedure known as LANAP that has done as much for dentistry as LASIK has done for eye surgery.
LANAP saves as much healthy tissue as possible and is much more sterile than surgery with knives. It also maximizes patient healing time and thereby creates more opportunity for periodontal pockets to heal on their own.
LANAP not only cuts away tissue, but it also addresses the problem of periodontal pockets. A calibrated probe called a periodontal probe is used to measure the depth of the pocket, and this information then enables the cosmetic dentist to better apply the laser for maximum treatment of gum disease.
In the event that we do have to extract teeth, and assuming the worst case scenario of major bone loss, we can still do full mouth reconstructions for patients with Periodontitis. By using natural teeth in combination with dental implants we can help keep a patient from losing all of their teeth and having to resort to the unpleasant use of dentures.
There is nothing that can replace the feel and function of your natural teeth.
This does not happen all at once, however, so there is hope. Periodontal disease occurs in stages. These stages are gingivitis (an early and reversible condition), mild Periodontitis, moderate Periodontitis, and severe Periodontitis.
Periodontal pockets begin to develop during mild Periodontitis. They become progressively deeper as gum disease progresses. As they increase in size, bacteria have more space to breed and thrive. As they begin to accumulate, they advance beneath the gum tissue and begin attacking the deeper tissues beneath the skin. Eventually the bacteria become so prevalent and strong they begin to attack the bone as well.
People find it hard to believe that bacteria can eat away at bone like this, but they can. Even worse, bone loss will eventually cause tooth loss. This is because the teeth become so loose in a diminishing jaw line that they cannot function properly and will experience sensitivity and pain when exposed to hot and cold, and when any amount of normal bite pressure is applied.
Once this happens, the teeth will need to be extracted, and replacing them with a bridge or dental will be very expensive. Most people opt for cheaper dentures, but these never really do the job as well as more advanced tooth replacements.
Fortunately, our team of cosmetic dentists at the Medical Center Dental Group can do a lot for patients who are facing the apparent inevitability of tooth extraction. In fact, our cosmetic dentists routinely retain teeth that a lot of dentists may otherwise extract. We are able to do this because of ultra-sophisticated laser technology, and a procedure known as LANAP that has done as much for dentistry as LASIK has done for eye surgery.
LANAP saves as much healthy tissue as possible and is much more sterile than surgery with knives. It also maximizes patient healing time and thereby creates more opportunity for periodontal pockets to heal on their own.
LANAP not only cuts away tissue, but it also addresses the problem of periodontal pockets. A calibrated probe called a periodontal probe is used to measure the depth of the pocket, and this information then enables the cosmetic dentist to better apply the laser for maximum treatment of gum disease.
In the event that we do have to extract teeth, and assuming the worst case scenario of major bone loss, we can still do full mouth reconstructions for patients with Periodontitis. By using natural teeth in combination with dental implants we can help keep a patient from losing all of their teeth and having to resort to the unpleasant use of dentures.
There is nothing that can replace the feel and function of your natural teeth.
Labels: LANAP, periodontal pocket, periodontal surgery
posted by Dental Expert at
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