Periodontology / Gum Disease
Serving patients throughout Caversham, Emmer Green and Reading
Your gums are a vital part of your dental health. At Prospect Street Dental Practice, we offer a full gum treatment service that can prevent and treat gum disease, from a full periodontal maintenance plan to gum surgery. Gum disease can be responsible for eventual tooth loss if left untreated and we can help you to maintain your natural smile for as long as possible. One of the first signs you notice would be bleeding gums or receding gums. Sometimes it is even possible to regenerate the bone around the teeth/implants with periodontal surgery.
Initial Treatment
After an initial assessment of your gums, periodontal treatment involves a deep clean of the teeth under the gum line. It involves identifying risk factors associated with gum disease, identifying areas that you can do to help prevent plaque build up, and often deep cleaning the teeth under the gum line is the gold standard of treatment.
As the clean requires reaching down to the roots, we use local anaesthetic to make sure you are as comfortable as possible. We often need two appointments to thoroughly remove the bacterial biofilm from your gums, using an appointment per side. In severe cases it may be 4 visits and appointments are per quadrant. Ideally the appointments are close together to achieve the greatest benefit.
Gum surgery for periodontitis
Although “deep cleaning” has been proven to resolve over 74% of pockets (Suvan 2020) despite our best efforts there will be some cases where at the pockets are still too deep to consider those teeth stable long-term. Gum surgery allows access to the more difficult areas for cleaning and positioning the gums where they need to be. Sometimes it is even possible to regenerate the bone around the teeth/implants with periodontal surgery.
Gum surgery for implants
Implants can get gum disease just like teeth can, which is why its very important to ensure that you are cleaning them well on a day to day basis. The response to deep cleaning around implants is more unpredictable and the bone loss around implants can happen very quickly. In this case then surgery to allow access for cleaning and ensuring the implant threads are thoroughly cleaned is the best option.
Gum surgery for recession
Sometimes gums can recede not from a disease process but from having “thin” gums, overzealous brushing, and orthodontic treatment. Receding gums can make your teeth appear long and can make people feel self-conscious when they smile. Gum grafting allows us to replenish the lost gum tissue, providing support for your teeth.
Gum surgery for tooth wear or aesthetics
With excessive grinding or erosion of enamel, the teeth can appear noticeably short and broken, these teeth are extremely hard to repair. In these situations, then you may also be referred to me for “crown lengthening” this is a type of gum surgery where bone is removed from around the tooth or teeth to provide the dentist with more tooth structure to allow for a long-term well-fitting crown or restoration. In other cases, people do not like their “gummy smile” and crown lengthening can also be used to make the teeth appear longer.
Periodontal maintenance plans
Some people are a lot more susceptible to gum disease than others. This can be sometimes due to genetics or existing health issues. If you have severe gum disease, the best way to keep on top of the condition is through regular maintenance and monitoring with regular “pocket charting” and radiographic assessment.
If you are suffering with symptoms of gum disease book a review with our team today.
Specialist Periodontist
Dr Josephine Bayliss-Chapman
Josephine qualified from the University of Liverpool in 2013, where she was awarded the Gilmour Prize for Restorative Dentistry. Her Dental Foundation training was completed in Manchester in 2014. She is a member of the joint faculty of Dental Surgeons with the Royal College of Surgeons -MJDF (England). In October 2018 she won the British Society of Periodontology Poster prize competition based on...
