What is periodontics?
Periodontics is a specialty that prevents, diagnoses and treats diseases affecting the supporting teeth and sometimes implants.
What are the major diseases?
- Gingivitis: inflammation and bleeding gums without affecting the bone.
- Periodontitis: destruction of the bone supporting the teeth. If not treated in time can lead to tooth loss.
What are the causes?
There are many factors that lead to gum disease, however, the most important and most common factor is the lack of dental hygiene. Other factors include: genetics, stress, systemic diseases …
Gum disease is caused by a build-up of plaque on the teeth. Plaque is a sticky substance that contains bacteria.
Some bacteria in plaque are harmless, but some are harmful for the health of your gums. If you don’t remove plaque from your teeth by brushing them, it builds up and irritates your gums. This can lead to redness with bleeding, swelling and soreness.
Read more about the causes of gum disease.
How to treat it?
First, a periodontal chart is made, it is a first contact that helps us to know the extent and the areas affected by the disease. After that we perform a session of hygiene with ultrasound and oral hygiene instruction.
When the dentist sees that the patient follows the hygiene guidelines we can proceed to clean deeply and once finished a reassessment is made. In the case where necessary, some surgeries would be performed to remove scale and to allow the patient a better access to clean. Very important is the motivation of the patient and be aware that it is the basis of any other treatment you want to do.
Once treated the disease, the patient should keep appointments for maintenance.
Can we recover the bone lost?
Once the bone is lost it is almost impossible to gain it back, however, the disease is treated so we can stop the process.