Gum Disease Treatment Lincoln
Gum Disease Treatment for Infected Smiles
What is periodontal therapy? Periodontal therapy starts with scaling, root planing, and carefully cleaning your tooth root surfaces to remove plaque and tartar from deep inside periodontal pockets (the spaces between your gums and teeth). Scaling and root planing periodontal therapy in our Lincoln, NE, dental office is essential to maintaining tooth and gum health.
Why Choose Williamsburg Dental for Gum Disease Treatment?
- Safe & Effective Forms of Treatment Available for Improved Gum Health
- Enhanced Digital Imaging to Ensure Proper Dental Diagnoses
- Dentists with Decades of Proven Experience & Training
When Would I Need Gum Disease Treatment?
Healthy gums are firm and pale pink in color. If your gums are puffy, red, bleed easily, or show any of the following signs of gum disease, you should make an immediate periodontal therapy appointment:
- Swollen gums
- Bright red or purplish gums
- Tender or sensitive gums
- Receding gumline
- Gaps or spaces developing between your teeth
- Pus between teeth and gums
- Persistent bad breath
- Constant bad taste in the mouth
- Loosened or wiggly teeth
- A change in your bite
Scaling & Root Planing
When caught early during the first stage of development (called gingivitis), the bacteria that cause gum or periodontal disease can be controlled with regular professional teeth cleaning. However, more advanced cases require extra thorough treatment to fight off the infection. That’s where scaling and root planing come in. We go deep below the gumline to ensure plaque and bacteria are completely cleared out and to prevent gum disease from happening again down the road.
Periodontal Maintenance
Once we’ve treated your mouth with scaling and root planing, we may need to repeat the process every three to four months until we see improvement. When we feel more certain that the infection is under control, we can switch to maintaining your oral health, which is relatively simple. Basically, you need to make sure that you brush and floss your teeth every day to prevent plaque from calcifying between your teeth and near the gumline. You also need to come to Williamsburg Dental for a dental checkup and cleaning every six months. These steps may seem small, but they make a big difference in keeping your teeth and gums healthy for years to come.
South Lincoln Gum Disease Treatment Appointments
When maintaining good oral health, prevention is key. Be proactive with your dental health and make an appointment with the highly qualified dentists and dental hygiene professionals of Williamsburg Dental today. Our dentists can help protect your teeth from decay and gum disease. We proudly serve families daily throughout Lincoln, Hickman, Crete, Waverly, and the surrounding communities.
Gum Disease Treatment FAQs
How Common Is Gum Disease?
Worldwide, gum disease is the highest cause of tooth loss in adults over the age of 30. In fact, about half of Americans have some form of this infection! In other words, it is very common, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s not serious. Those who have gum disease are significantly more likely to develop heart disease, kidney disease, Alzheimer’s, and even certain kinds of cancer. The bacteria that cause inflammation in your gums can truly harm your smile, body, and life expectancy.
Does Gum Disease Treatment Hurt?
While we perform gum disease treatment, you shouldn’t feel discomfort, but we may use a local anesthetic to numb particular areas. Without it, you might feel pain when we go deep into trapped pockets of plaque and clear them out. If you feel nervous or need extra pain relief, we can also offer you sedation options like nitrous oxide and others. We want you to have a pleasant experience in the chair and feel hopeful about your smile’s future.
If I Have Teeth Removed, Will That Take Care of Gum Disease?
Not necessarily. After infecting the gum tissue, the bacteria then move on to the jawbone. Over time, your bone density will decrease, which makes your natural teeth wiggly and loose. If you reach this point in the infection, we’ll either remove the tooth or refer you to a periodontist, who can address more serious cases. However, without strong gums, you can’t have a powerful smile!
How Long Does Gum Disease Treatment Take?
As mentioned above, you may require several sessions of scaling and root planing until the infection is under control, but each session could take up to an hour. It depends on how much plaque and calculus we still need to remove from your teeth. If you practice excellent oral hygiene at home and can control what you eat more closely, you may find that your follow-up gum disease appointments could be faster and fewer! After that, it’s just maintaining healthy results with regular professional cleanings.
Can I Get Dental Implants If I Have Gum Disease?
Did you know that gum disease can stand between you and the most cutting-edge tooth replacement option available? Even after a tooth is extracted, you may still have the infection, which can cause new implants to fail. If you currently have gum disease, we must address this issue first. Once your infection is properly treated, we can consider an implant treatment plan and replace your missing teeth with the next best thing!