Maintaining your periodontal health is critical for your teeth. When your gum tissues become too soft, they tend to slip away from the teeth, enabling plaque and calculus to form on the roots of your teeth. The plaque combines with sugars and starches that are present in the mouth to form acid, another damaging component of this gum disease.

Soft gum tissue can also lead to harmful bacteria and painful infection that can endanger supporting bone structures as well as your health. Fortunately, treatment is available that can manage your soft tissue properly. With successful periodontal therapy, your teeth can survive as you regain good oral health practices.

As with many health strategies, soft tissue management typically involves three distinctive phases – diagnosis, treatment, and post-treatment strategy. The initial phase of periodontal diagnosis is designed to fully determine the cause of the periodontal disease. The treatment phase is set up to eliminate the disease. The follow-up phase of preventative treatment is used to avoid future problems or the reoccurrence of your periodontal disease.

Periodontal Treatments: Diagnosis

During your first visit, your periodontist examines your teeth and gums in order to determine the causal factors involved. A variety of factors can lead to periodontal disease including diet, medication, medical conditions, and improper dental care.

Periodontal Treatments: Treatment

Your Las Vegas dentist creates a plan for treatment, which is completed during this next phase. If you are in the early stages of periodontal disease, you may only need root planning. Otherwise, your soft-gum treatment plan may include more than one strategy.

During the treatment phase, the periodontist performs one or more of the following tasks that are necessitated by the issues that you are experiencing. They include:

• Root planing – Root planing involves the mechanical elimination of calculus and plaque. This type of buildup removal is typically accomplished in the Las Vegas dental office.
• Correction of bite problems (malocclusion)
• Laser Therapy – Repair of gum defects by non-surgical or surgical means
• Repair of bone defects by surgical or non-surgical methods
• Restoration of teeth – the repair of diseased teeth helps to eliminate the bacteria that causes periodontal disease
• Replacement of missing teeth – to recreate proper alignment of the bite
• Gingivectomy and Curettage – procedures to treat periodontal pockets

Periodontal Treatments: Post-Treatment Care

This stage of treatment revolves around the prevention of a reoccurrence of your gum disease. Your Las Vegas dentist will provide you with a list of strategies to follow for good oral care, enabling you to maintain healthy gums.