Periodontal Care When you get treatment for periodontal disease, which often involves deep cleaning of the gum pockets, surgery, or other treatment, you still need to control the disease. Often, periodontal disease cannot be cured, so it needs a lot of effort to manage and put under control. In fact, periodontal disease, once you have it, it becomes a lifelong disease that you have to monitor and deal with to prevent further consequences. Our dental specialists at Jerome Riddle DDS work relentlessly to ensure that we prevent gum disease before it sets in and worsens to become periodontal disease. In the event that you have periodontal disease, we take care of it by offering appropriate treatment and monitoring it thereafter with periodontal maintenance therapy. What is Periodontal Maintenance?After you have suffered periodontal disease, you will need special ongoing care referred to as periodontal maintenance therapy. Therapy involves the removal of tartar just like what happens with regular cleaning. Our dentist gets in between the teeth, cleaning the gaps down to the gums. It is a process known as scaling and root-planing. Besides the special cleaning, our dentist examines your gum pockets to determine if there is an inflammation or infection. The dentist cleans the area of the gum pockets with antiseptic to disinfect it and control the infection or inflammation. We schedule our patients for periodontal maintenance every three to four months, unlike the regular cleanings that happen every six months. The reason is that bacterial plaque can multiply very quickly and set in another episode of periodontal disease after dealing with the previous one. What Does Periodontal Maintenance Involve?If you suffer from periodontal disease, you may experience bone loss, bleeding gums, exposed root surfaces, receding gums, and gum pockets with a depth of more than 4mm. With these symptoms, you receive periodontal surgery or deep cleaning since traditional cleaning is not enough. Periodontal maintenance ensures that after treatment of periodontal disease, it will not slip back. This way, you are able to maintain healthy gums, teeth, and jawbones. Periodontal maintenance removes plaque and tartar in the area above and below your gumline. The cleaning is conducted all the way down, often reaching the area where the gums, teeth, and bones intersect. A dentist works each tooth to ensure it is clean. Rough areas within the roots are also smoothed over in order to remove any dents where bacterial plaque and tartar could accumulate. The dentist also monitors the depth of the pockets to see if it is increasing or decreasing after treatment. Additionally, the dentist may irrigate the pockets with antibacterial medicine if they are inflamed. It is a pretty intensive procedure, however, it is paramount to ensure you restore and maintain healthy gums and bones. Allowing bacteria to thrive in the mouth can lead to inflammation and infection. Our dentist will determine the next visit for periodontal maintenance and care. If you have recently been treated for periodontal disease, talk to our team at Jerome Riddle DDS to book you for a periodontal maintenance visit. Call us today at 480-991-4410 to set up an appointment. |
