Periodontal disease, often referred to as gum disease, is one of the most common conditions that can affect your oral and periodontal health. Like tooth decay, it’s a product of excessive oral bacteria gathering and forming dental plaque. In the case of gum disease, however, these bacteria prefer to work their underneath your gums and infect the soft tissues, rather than focusing on your healthy tooth structure. At our Encinitas/San Diego periodontal office, we can help you treat your periodontal disease according to its severity. That may mean boosting your preventive efforts to lower your risks of it, or actively rebuilding severely damaged gum tissues.

Preventive periodontal care

Preventive care and maintenance are the cornerstones of a consistently healthy smile. That’s because prevention largely focuses on helping you avoid or fight the accumulation of harmful, disease-causing oral bacteria in the first place. If you exhibit red, irritated gums, then bacteria may have already settled underneath them. To remove them, we can perform gentle scaling and root planing, which involves carefully accessing your teeth roots to effectively clean them. This may require multiple visits to complete, and afterward, you may also require additional maintenance, such as ozone treatment or platelet-rich therapy.

Routine periodontal maintenance

If your gingivitis or gum disease has progressed too much to reverse it, then the next goal will be to control it before it can cause any more significant damage to your periodontal tissues. Treatment may include ongoing maintenance with Perio Protect, a topical antibacterial agent that you can apply to your gums daily from the comfort of home. You might also benefit from ozone treatment, which involves the application of oxygen to neutralize anaerobic bacteria, and platelet-rich therapy that bolsters your gum tissues’ ability to heal.

Specialized periodontal procedures

In severe case of periodontal disease, your gums may exhibit severe damage or erosion from its progression. Restoring your healthy smile could require trimming away the diseased sections of your gums with laser periodontal treatment (also known as LANAP). This will allow your healthy gums to heal properly, though if enough tissue has been compromised, you might also require gum grafting to fortify it. If you’ve lost one or more teeth because of your gum disease, then we might also suggest replacing them with an appropriate number of dental implants.

Learn more about custom periodontal treatment

Periodontal disease can be detected at various stages, and treating it will depend on the specific extent of your condition. For more information, schedule a consultation with Dr. Kania by calling her periodontal office in Encinitas/San Diego, CA, at (760) 642-0711.