Gum Disease Treatment
Regular brushing and flossing clean the teeth and remove plaque, tartar, and bacteria from the mouth and help in maintaining good oral hygiene. Ignorance of this leads to grave consequences as gum health is closely related to your overall health. It’s safe to say that poor gum health is linked to serious conditions like cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.
Accumulation of plaque houses bacteria that release toxins, which are known to infect gums. If plaque is not regularly removed from the tooth surface, it hardens to form tartar and seeps below the gum line. Accumulation of plaque below the gum line causes severe infection, which spreads to the tooth roots. As a result, the gums become red and inflamed and start receding. Gum recession causes tooth loss and requires immediate attention.
Which procedures are performed to treat gum diseases?
SCALING AND ROOT PLANING
Root scaling is performed to remove plaque and tartar accumulations from both below and above the tooth surface. Dental scalers and curettes are used to manually scrape the plaque deposits. Your dentist may also use an ultrasonic scaling instrument with a vibrating tip to remove plaque deposits. The vibrating tip is used to identify regions with plaque deposits and a water spray flushes away the debris.
Root scaling is followed by root planing. Root planing addresses deeper regions like tooth roots and removes plaque deposits. It also smoothens the root surfaces and allows the gums to reattach themselves to the tooth surface.
Root scaling and planing are used to address gum diseases in their initial stages.
