Caring for your teeth and gums ideally involves only preventive measures like a good oral hygiene regimen at home and regular visits to your periodontist for a check up. But when gingivitis or periodontitis develop, you will need to counteract it with some form of periodontal treatment.

Today, laser periodontal treatment is easily the single most effective way to fight serious gum disease. That said, there are also other approaches that may sometimes be more appropriate; and regardless of which avenue you take, there are three phases of fighting periodontal infections you need to focus on:

1. Treatment & Reversal Of Milder Symptoms
When you have only gingivitis or pre-gingivitis, it’s often possible to reverse the effects and restore healthy gums with more basic procedures and ongoing care at home. Diagnosis and instruction on how to reduce “stress” on your gums by practicing good oral hygiene, quitting smoking, or avoiding other risk factors is emphasized in this phase.

In some cases, root scaling and planing and/or use of a medicated “patch” or special medicated mouth rinse will be recommended. In the mildest cases, just implementing proper oral care going forward may be enough.

2. Traditional Or Laser Periodontal Treatment
Laser periodontal treatment is the least painful, quickest, and most effective way to kill infectious bacteria in your mouth when you have gum disease. Other procedures, however, like bone and soft tissue grafts, gum flap surgery, PST grafts, or crown lengthening may sometimes be necessary.

The basic goal of periodontal surgery of any kind is to eliminate deep bacterial pockets from below your gum line and between your tooth roots. Restoration of lost gum tissue so as to again cover your teeth up to the proper level and of any lost alveolar bone mass may also be a surgical goal.

Laser periodontal treatment is the least invasive of all methods of combating periodontal disease. It is so painless that most don’t even require an anesthetic during the operation, and it results in minimal bleeding and inflammation. Also, the diseased tissue is more precisely targeted and eliminated, while healthy tissue is not lost in the process – and in fact the lasers stimulate regeneration of gum tissue post-op.

3. Post-op & Maintenance Care
With laser gum surgery, you can be done with the procedure in a single sitting and then be recovered enough to return to work and normal life habits within 24 hours. Full healing will occur within a month or so. Other gum surgeries will take longer for initial and full healing.

The chances of re-infection are lower with laser surgery, but no matter which method you choose, you need to exercise good oral care post-op as instructed by your periodontist for best results. That means going easy on your gums while they are still sore after the surgery – eating softer foods and avoiding sugary ones, while drinking plenty of water.

Don’t brush gums directly when still hyper-sensitive following gum surgery, but still brush elsewhere as much as you can, floss carefully, and use an antiseptic mouthwash. At least one follow up visit to your periodontist’s office will be needed to ensure your gums are healing as they should – you’ll probably do follow up anywhere from one to three months after the procedure.

To learn more about when you might need laser periodontal treatment or other gum disease therapy, contact Dr. Raymond A. Kenzik in Central Florida today!