Periodontal disease, also known as gum disease, is a buccal condition that affects the tissue surrounding and holding your teeth in place. It’s one of the most frequent non-infectious diseases in the world, alongside dental caries. But fortunately, it’s easily preventable and treatable. 

What Is Periodontal Disease?

While healthy teeth are usually stable and steady inside your mouth, there’s a specialized tissue supporting them called gingiva that provides them with some elasticity and movement. These periodontal tissues that we know as gums serve as pillars for your teeth and help them cushion the enormous forces applied to them when we eat.

Periodontal disease appears when these supporting tissues get infected by bacteria or are damaged by external factors, weakening your teeth, affecting their steadiness, and swelling your gums.

What Are The Causes Of Periodontal Disease?

Periodontal disease can be the result of multiple factors, including poor oral hygiene, smoking, diabetes, hormonal changes, and some prescription drugs.

Commonly, brushing your teeth gets rid of dental plaque (biofilm). However, when oral hygiene gets neglected, bacteria accumulates and hardens around your teeth, producing tartar that irritates and contaminates your teeth and gums.  The contamination of bacteria sores the gums and makes the soft tissue retract from their initial and normal position, leaving the teeth exposed and weak.

Although there are other causes of periodontal disease, having poor hygiene habits is its typical cause. Furthermore, gum disease is tightly related to hormonal changes. Therefore, it can appear during pregnancy, adolescence, and certain systemic diseases.  Tobacco use is also hurtful to the soft tissues of the mouth. It affects the gums and other tissues deeply, making smoking the second most frequent cause of gum disease, followed by hormonal conditions like diabetes.

How Is Periodontal Disease Diagnosed? 

Like most dental health conditions, it is crucial that gum disese is diagnosed and treated early.   Regular checkups is really the only way to keep an expert eye on the state of your dental health.

During your dental visit, we will perform a complete examination and review your medical history.  Our team will take note of previous diseases, habits like smoking, and any signs of inflammation and irritation. Using a small specialized tool called the periodontal probe, our specialist will measure the gums and locate pockets. Usually, these pockets are 1 to 3 millimeters in-depth,  finding deeper pockets may indicate gum disease.

Additionally, the clinician might require a few x-rays to detect bone loss and work on a treatment plan if required.

These diagnostic procedures, including probing, are painless and quick to determine the presence of periodontal disease.

What Are The Treatments For Periodontal Disease?

The treatment and management of periodontal disease depend on its severity, extent, and type.

Frequently, the main focus of the treatment is to control the infection. This is achieved by removing the irritant elements like the plaque and tartar. And although dental plaque can be controlled at home with the appropriate dental brushing, only a dental professional can remove the calculus.

Cleaning and polishing your teeth is only the first step of the treatment. Curing periodontal disease requires a close doctor to patient collaboration. As a result, any type of periodontal treatment needs outstanding following-up at home with daily and meticulous care. So, in a nutshell, dental hygiene is the most essential part of any periodontal treatment.

Without proper daily follow-up, the tissues will irritate again, swelling and bleeding.

In cases with Periodontitis, we will perform a procedure called scaling and root planing, removing the tartar and smoothing out the teeth surface that is not visible.   Additionally, cosmetic periodontal surgeries can reconstruct and recover the lost soft tissue

Finally, as part of your treatment, we may suggest using some special mouthwash, taking antibiotics, changing some behaviors like smoking, and adjusting your medication for your diabetes to improve your recovery.

What Are The Complications Of Periodontal Disease?

Although it might seem like a minor thing, periodontal disease is a major cause for tooth loss. Overlooking periodontal treatment can lead to multiple complications that can affect your mouth and denture irreversibly.  For instance, neglecting the early stages of gum disease can induce support loss which in turn will weaken your teeth and allow movement.  Ultimately, with further neglect the impacted tooth or teeth will need to be extracted due to extensive bone loss.   At this stage, dental pain, abscesses, inability to chew food and speak properly are typical symptoms.

Neglected periodontal disease can increase the risk of cardiovascular conditions and can contribute to complications during pregnancy.

What Can You Do To Help?

Having appropriate oral hygiene is the best way to help us with your treatment.  Brush your teeth at least twice a day with fluoride paste.  Be sure to ask us a about the right choice of toothbrush. And most importantly, floss daily to remove plaque buildup between the teeth where your bursh can’t reach and clean.

Finally, do not neglect or put off regular check-ups.