What is periodontal disease and do I have it?
Periodontal disease is serious infection that damages the jaw bone and gums, eventually causing tooth loss. You may not realise but gum infections are actually the number one cause of tooth loss!
Anyone who suffers from bleeding or inflamed gums has some form of periodontal disease – so this is a lot of people. In the early stages, the symptoms are not that severe and we commonly refer to that type of infection as gingivitis. When the infection is left untreated it can become far more serious as shown in the image below.
As the infection damages the jaw bone it forms a ‘pocket’ between the gum and the tooth. Bacteria love periodontal pockets, and from here things can quickly get worse – normally resulting in tooth loss when not dealt with properly.
So, periodontal disease is a major problem – it is contagious, and some people also have a genetic predisposition that makes it worse. It isn’t the kind of thing you want to leave untreated. If you have any of the early symptoms like bleeding gums and bad breath, then you really should be looking at having the infection treated.
What does Laser + Holistic Dental do differently to treat periodontal disease?
Our dentists use the PIPS Laser Periodontal Treatment method to kill off the bacteria causing the infection, heal up the infected area and encourage the gums to regenerate. We also use Ozone therapy for additional disinfection of the gum area to complement traditional periodontal treatments like ultrasonic disinfection and hand scaling.
Laser periodontal treatments have been scientifically proven to be better at eliminating infection when compared to conventional approaches – research has found that most periodontal pockets treated with laser had no residual infection, whereas pockets treated with conventional technology all had some level of infection.
Laser periodontal treatment is also more comfortable for the patient as there is nearly no physical contact required, no sharp instruments or exertion of manual force like with classic root planing and scaling. Check out the video below to hear what Dr Edward Lee thinks about laser periodontal treatments.
Dr Edward Lee discusses the benefits of laser periodontal treatment below:
