What is gum disease?
Gum disease is an infection of the tissues that hold your teeth in place. It's typically caused by poor brushing and flossing habits that allow plaque to build up on the teeth and harden, which we call tartar build up. It starts with swollen, red, and bleeding gums.
Gums may be red, swollen, tender, or bleeding and gums may pull away from the teeth making them appear longer. Teeth become sensitive and pain while chewing. Persistent bad breath is another symptom of gum disease.
What is deep scaling / periodontal maintenance?
The main goal of treatment is to control the infection. The number and types of treatments will vary, depending on the extent of the gum disease. Usually treated under local anastatic, mouth section will be either divided two or four, however if you’re not in that severe condition, this can be done in one go. Tartar build-up under the gum line (near the root of the teeth) will be removed.
Deep scaling is not finish in one cycle. The dentists need to check whether your gum condition is improved. Normally the review appointment will be done in 3 to 4 months after each treatment. Any type of treatment requires that the patient keep up good daily care at home. We would also suggest changing certain behaviors, such as quitting smoking, as a way to improve your treatment results.
Why is it so important?
If gum disease left untreated, it can spread to the bones surrounding the gums, making it painful to chew and starts the loss of surrounding bones that holding your teeth. In the worst cases, teeth may become loose or need to be removed, and also have less options to replace those teeth.
Common misunderstanding of gum treatment
Can I just do normal scaling instead of deep scaling?
No we don’t recommend as there will be no point get rid of upper part of your tartar build up wouldn’t do anything for your gum disease. The residual tartar build up keeps causing infection and bone loss. Once your condition gets better, our dentist will tell you to do regular check up and scaling in 6 months.
I got black holes in between my teeth and gum after gum treatment.
Black triangles can appear between your teeth for several reasons, but most of them are related to the health of your teeth and gums. Especially gum disease with a loss of bone near the base of a tooth and with inflamed gum, you would not have noticed it. However once the treatment is done and the inflammation is gone, the gum tissue in that area may also recede along the bone level. This leads to the formation of black triangles.
