If you are one of the millions of people who experience symptoms of gum disease, we can help! Our compassionate team at Sea Smiles Dental & Braces in Houston, TX, understands the importance of catching and treating gum disease early and offers both comprehensive dental exams to check for signs of gum disease as well as scaling and root planing to stop the spread and even potentially reverse your symptoms. To get started, book online or call today to schedule an exam!
What Is Gum Disease?
Gum disease is a medical condition that occurs when your gums become infected with bacteria. This can happen for a variety of reasons but can cause significant damage to your oral health when left untreated. Fortunately, gum disease is highly treatable and can even be reversed under some conditions.
How Common Is Gum Disease?
Gum disease is incredibly common. In fact, most people will likely experience symptoms at some point in their lives. The vast majority of cases occur in people over 30, although gum disease can be found in younger people as well.
What Causes Gum Disease?
Gum disease is the result of a bacterial infection in the gums. The infection itself can be the result of a variety of factors, and while for some the cause is simply poor oral hygiene, for others the disease can come from taking certain medications, overall diet, health, and wellness, and even genetics.
What Are the Symptoms of Gum Disease?
Gum disease has few to no obvious symptoms in the earliest stages. However, over time, you’ll start to notice things like reddened or inflamed gums, bleeding (especially during brushing or flossing), loss of gum tissue, and even loose teeth. If left untreated, those symptoms can worsen to include additional problems like the loss of teeth, decay, spread of infection to surrounding tissues, and even damage to your jawbone. Untreated gum disease has also been linked to non-dental health problems like heart disease.
In order to catch symptoms early, when the disease is the easiest to treat, we recommend scheduling regular exams with your dentist. These will typically occur during your normal six-month dental cleaning appointments, so you don’t need to do anything extra, just be sure that you’re bringing your pearly whites in for a regular checkup!
What Is Scaling & Root Planing Treatment?
Once we diagnose a case of gum disease, we typically recommend scaling and root planing as our primary treatment approach. Also called gum disease therapy or a deep cleaning, scaling and root planing is a procedure during which your dentist will gently clean out pockets of infected gum tissue to remove bacteria and reduce or eliminate any infection. During this procedure, your dentist will also remove any plaque or tartar that has built up on the roots of your teeth and may be contributing to the infection.
If you have been diagnosed with gum disease, we recommend scheduling a scaling and root planing treatment every six months, as part of your regular dental cleaning. Over time, this treatment will keep most cases of gum disease at bay, and can even reverse your symptoms entirely.
Schedule an Exam & Cleaning Today!
To keep your gums happy and healthy (or get them headed in the right direction), schedule a dental exam and cleaning with our compassionate, experienced team today!
