What Are Some Gum Disease Treatments?
While gum disease that has progressed past mild gingival inflammation isn’t curable, it can be managed with the right treatment approaches. Periodontal treatments can’t bring back tissue that’s been destroyed, but they can help reduce infection and replenish some degree of damaged tissue. Initially, gum disease is completely reversible, and inflammation resolves with improved oral hygiene and regular professional cleaning. Beyond these earlier stages, as damage progresses, traditional professional cleanings are insufficient to eliminate infection, and periodontal treatment approaches are preferred. These treatments are designed to remove bacteria and infected tissue and reduce the risk of additional damage, with the goal of maintaining as much healthy, natural oral tissue as possible.
The first line of defense for any periodontist is a periodontal treatment called scaling and root planing, which resembles a routine dental cleaning but which goes beneath the gums where regular cleaning doesn’t reach. This dental deep clean is recommended for people with mild gum disease and can help restore the protective function of the gums by removing the source of inflammation and resurfacing the exposed tooth surfaces to discourage future bacterial growth. Scaling and root planing treatment is usually performed over two visits, using a local anesthetic to manage pain.
When gum disease has progressed, scaling and root planing may be insufficient to restore the health of the oral cavity, and surgical treatments may be needed. These surgical approaches vary in their levels of invasiveness and in their clinical goals. People with more severe gum disease may need to have plaque and tartar removed with a surgical approach called pocket reduction surgery, which allows dentists to clean deep beneath the gums where scaling and root planing tools won’t reach. In this procedure, a periodontist cuts into the gums, moving the resulting gum flaps back to expose the tooth roots before cleaning, sanitizing, and smoothing the roots and suturing the gums back into place. This surgical method might accompany procedures that help support the growth of healthy tissue, like bone or gum grafts, or guided tissue regeneration.
Dental bone grafts can be an important part of periodontal treatment and are used to replenish bone that’s been lost to gum disease. After areas of infection are cleaned and prepared, the periodontist may place bone grafting material where bone has degraded, where it serves as a scaffold for new bone that grows over time. When gum tissue has been lost to periodontal disease, your periodontist might also recommend gum graft surgery, using donor tissue to repair areas of significant gum recession. This donor tissue could come from a licensed tissue bank, or it could come from the patient’s own mouth, and is usually harvested from the soft palate. Gum grafts can restore the integrity of the gum line and can help protect sensitive tooth roots.
To support the proper growth of bone tissue and prevent soft tissue from filling in the spaces where bone once thrived, periodontists also use techniques like guided tissue regeneration, or GTR, combined with bone grafts. Because soft tissue grows far more quickly than bone, such treatments rely on a small piece of artificial membrane that’s placed with the graft, serving as a barrier against soft tissue and allowing new bone time to grow. Other healing support, like platelet-rich fibrin or platelet-rich plasma, can help grafted tissue heal more efficiently and effectively, supporting a speedy and painless recovery from comprehensive periodontal treatments.