Category: Gum Disease

Gum disease is a significant cause of tooth loss in American adults, according to the American Dental Association. You may not know you have gum disease festering in your mouth because you regularly avoid dental visits for exams and cleanings. You think brushing and flossing your teeth are adequate to keep all infections away from your mouth.

Perhaps you don’t realize the food you have and plaque developing continuously in your mouth and hardening to tartar cause gum disease. Food and plaque get trapped in the sulcus, the tiny space of your teeth at a low point than the edges of the gum visible to us. The trapped food and plaque, which hardens into tartar within 48 hours, cause infections when the plaque extends below the gum line.

Left untreated gum disease in its mildest form causes your gums to separate from your teeth. The separation causes damages to the soft tissue and bone supporting the teeth. Your teeth become loose and unstable. If you let the infection progress further, you lose your tooth or need dental extractions.

How to Become Aware You Have Gum Disease?

Detecting gum disease by yourself is challenging and needs an examination from 95376 dentists every six months. Brushing and flossing your teeth enable you to remove plaque buildup on your teeth. However, you may not achieve 100 percent success with removing plaque because your toothbrush cannot reach between your teeth where plaque residues remain trapped. It is why dental visits for cleanings are essential.

When you allow plaque residue to harden to tartar, removing it by yourself is impossible. At this stage, you may already have developed gum disease and need professional help from the dentist in Tracy, CA, who can give you a deep cleaning to remove both plaque and tartar. Avoid the visit to the Tracy dentist, and you give an impression that you don’t care about your dental health and are willing to let the condition worsen.

Symptoms You May Experience When You Have Gum Disease

You may not be aware you have gum disease because the condition may not display any symptoms. However, you will undoubtedly see subtle warning signs that things are not right in your mouth. The warning signs show indications like:

• Bleeding gums when brushing and flossing.
• Tender, red, and swollen gums.
• Your gums are pulling away from your teeth.
• Variations in how your teeth meet together when biting.
• Halitosis that doesn’t go away even after brushing.
• Pus within your teeth and gums and loosened teeth.

If you notice any of the warning signs mentioned above, it is time for you to seek gum disease treatment near you. At this point, it doesn’t help for you to remain ashamed because you didn’t care well for your dental health. The more you delay gum disease treatment, the harsher the conditions will be for you. Therefore head to the dentist right away, accepting your mistake, and seek the treatment you need.

Diagnosing Gum Disease

Dentists have tiny rulers they use to probe your gums during dental exams. The probing enables dentists to check for inflammation while also measuring the pockets, if any, around the teeth. Dentists may order x-rays to verify whether a bone loss has occurred.

Give your dentist information about your risk factors for gum disease besides your symptoms. It helps the dentist diagnose your gingivitis. You may receive a referral to a periodontist, a specialist treating gum diseases if gingivitis is present in your mouth.

Treatment for Gum Disease

Practicing proper oral hygiene is the optimal way to treat gingivitis. Cutting back on smoking if you do and managing your diabetes are also essential. Other treatments include deep cleaning your teeth, antibiotics, and surgery.

Non-surgical treatments are initially attempted to clean your teeth, performing scaling and root planing. Scaling helps eliminate tartar from over and under the gum line. Rough spots on the tooth surface are smoothened by root planing, removing plaque and tartar even from the root surfaces.

If the above non-surgical treatments are not effective may require surgical intervention for removal of plaque and tartar and control the progress of gum disease. Surgical techniques combine flap surgery and bone & tissue grafts. If your gum disease progresses to advanced periodontitis, you must maintain the condition throughout your life because no treatment is available to cure it.

Preventing Gum Disease Is Not a Challenge

Preventing gum disease is easier than you think because it requires consistent oral hygiene practices to prevent the infection. It would be best if you cleaned your teeth twice daily utilizing fluoride toothpaste. Flossing your teeth every day to remove plaque is also necessary. If you wish to achieve good dental health having a balanced diet is also a requirement. Most importantly, visiting your dentist for six-monthly dental exams and cleanings help prevent gum disease. Allow gum disease to fester in your mouth, and you may have to visit your dentist more frequently for intensive treatments.

Sometimes when brushing, you could notice slight bleeding, which could indicate you have used too much force or hard-bristled toothbrush. However, at times bleeding gums could be a symptom of gum infection.

Gum disease affects a majority of people, and since the infection is benign in the early stages, it could go unnoticed. That is why it is essential to visit the dentist regularly for assessment.

Periodontal disease is gradual and occurs in stages. Gum inflammation and irritation are the primary symptoms of gingivitis. Gingivitis treatments involve proper hygiene and antibiotics to keep the infection at bay. If untreated, the gum infection could advance to periodontitis, which causes the gums to detach from the teeth.

Gum disease may sound scary, but it’s not as we have several treatment options that can work to reverse the effects of the infection. Some of the treatment options available include:

1. Deep Dental Cleaning

Professional teeth cleaning is done on your bi-annual dental appointment. The dentist will remove plaque and tartar buildup from your gum line.

Although professional cleaning is not a treatment for active gum infection, it is a preventive measure that can keep the bacteria away. Deep teeth cleaning is done twice a year, but the dentist can recommend frequent cleanings if you are at risk of gum disease.

2. Root Scaling and Planing

Though similar to professional cleaning, scaling is a treatment and not a routine procedure. Root scaling is a non-surgical procedure that involves removing tartar and cleaning the gum pockets. After scaling, the dentist will proceed to do root planning, which involves reducing the gum pockets and reattaching them back to the teeth.

You may have tooth sensitivity for a few days following the scaling and root planing.

3. Gum Graft

Periodontitis can cause the gums to recede. The process is often gradual, and most people don’t notice it until it’s too late.

The gum recession can be rectified using a surgical procedure. Several gum graft techniques are available and will depend on your severity and stage of the gum disease. But, generally, the dentist will remove tissue from the roof of the mouth and fix it on the affected area to promote tissue growth.

4. Flap Surgery

When the root scaling and planing fail to get rid of the infection, the dentist can opt for pocket reduction surgery. During the procedure, our dentist in Tracy, CA, will first clean off the tartar and smoothen the area to close the tiny spaces that cause bacteria to grow. Next, the dentist will place the gums back to the teeth while reducing the space between the gums and teeth.

5. Bone Graft

At times bone graft is combined with flap surgery. Bone grafting is a procedure done to promote bone growth that was destroyed by the gum infection. The dentist will use bone granules from your body or other sources such as cadaver. The bone can support not only the surrounding tissue but also promote new bone growth.

The above-mentioned surgical procedures are done when necessary. More often than not, root scaling and planing is the ideal treatment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What Causes Gum Disease?

Poor hygiene and plaque buildup is the primary cause of periodontal disease. However, several factors can increase your risks, such as hormonal changes, smoking, family history, obesity, and certain medications.

Always examine your gums daily if you have any of the above risk factors.

Q. How Can You Tell You Need Gum Treatment?

Both gingivitis and periodontitis have similar symptoms but in varying degrees. The initial symptoms include pain, tender, swollen, and bleeding gums, bad breath, and dark gums. As the infection advances, you will have constant gum bleeding, halitosis, receding gums and bones, pain when chewing, pus in between the gums and teeth, and lose teeth.

Q. Is Gum Disease Preventable?

Yes. Practice proper hygiene, stop smoking, and reduce stress. Additionally, ensure you come to Innovo Dental Implant and studio for your regular dental checkup. It is easy for the dentist to reverse the effects of gum disease is caught early and prevent the possibility of tooth extraction.

According to a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, one out of every two American adults has gum disease, also known as periodontitis. Even if you don’t have any cavities and have the straightest and brightest pearl whites around, it’s still important to take note of your gums and whether they’re showing signs of infection. Because the disease begins by exhibiting small, hardly noticeable symptoms, it’s important to take preventive measures and visit your dentist in Tracy, CA regularly to stop it in its tracks. Read on to learn more about this common oral condition and how you can prevent it.

What is Gum Disease?

Your mouth is teeming with different types of bacteria, some aren’t harmful, while others can invade your mouth and produce countless side effects. Food particles mixed with saliva and harmful bacteria are constantly coming together to form a colorless sticky substance in your mouth called plaque. It coats your teeth and can harden into tartar if it’s not regularly cleared away with brushing and flossing. Once it hardens, the only thing that can remove it is a professional dental cleaning. These bacteria release harmful toxins that are known to cause inflammation, as well as a variety of other symptoms, infecting your gums and causing permanent damage when left to accumulate.

What are the Symptoms of Gum Disease?

There are two major stages of gum disease. The earliest is called gingivitis, and the more advanced form is called periodontitis or periodontal disease. When the condition is left untreated, the symptoms and effects become irreversible. However, your dentist may be able to treat and restore your oral health if you visit them early on, before it has had an opportunity to progress. Here are some symptoms of the condition, listed in order of severity:

• Bleeding while brushing and flossing.
• Inflamed, swollen, and irritated gums.
• Chronic bad breath.
• Sensitive teeth.
• Painful chewing.
• Receding gums.
• Loose or shifting permanent teeth.
• Tooth loss.

As soon as you notice any of these signs, immediately visit your dentist in Tracy so they can be addressed before they get worse.

4 Tips to Prevent Gum Disease

Although gum disease is so common, it is often easily preventable with the right oral care and maintenance. The best way to avoid harmful oral bacteria accumulation is to

• Brush your teeth twice each day using fluoride toothpaste for at least two minutes and floss every day.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that tobacco use weakens your immune system, making it harder to fight off oral infections.
• Visit your dentist every six months for professional checkups and cleanings to diagnose and treat the issue before it causes permanent damage.
• Rinse your mouth every day with antibacterial mouthwash to remove food particles, debris, and harmful bacteria from your mouth.

If you have any questions or would like recommendations and tips on how you can optimize your oral health and protect your mouth from gum disease, ask your dentist at your next routine checkup and cleaning.

About the Author

Dr. TJ Rattan has been a dentist for nearly a decade and is passionate about providing his patients with high-quality and thorough dental treatment. He understands the connection between his patients’ oral and overall health, which is why he offers effective gum disease treatment to stop the disease from progressing. For questions or to schedule a consultation if you notice any signs of gum disease, visit Innovo Dental and Implant Studio’s website or call 209-207-9076.