Periodontal Disease Specialists

What is periodontal disease?

Periodontal disease is an oral disease affecting your gums and the underlying bone. Unfortunately, periodontal disease is extremely common. It can take hold painlessly, so it’s essential to have regular preventive dental exams to diagnose the disease as early as possible. 

What are the types of periodontal disease?

There are two main forms of periodontal disease.

Gingivitis

Gingivitis is the early form of periodontal disease. It's usually painless but may cause visual changes like gum swelling and redness. You may also have bad breath. 

With gingivitis, the damage occurs in your gums but doesn't yet affect the bone below them.  

If you don't treat gingivitis, the damage can spread, becoming periodontitis.

Periodontitis

Periodontitis occurs when plaque accumulates beneath your gums. The plaque releases toxins that irritate them, triggering an inflammatory response. Essentially, your body attacks its own gum tissue as well as the bone underneath it. 

Missing teeth

Missing teeth, a common impact of untreated periodontal disease, can lead to even more oral health problems if you don’t replace them. 

That eventually leads to receding gums, loose teeth, and shrinking jawbone support. But, all of these things can occur with only minor symptoms until the damage becomes severe. Therefore, it's important to see the team at St. Tammany Periodontics & Implants as soon as you suspect a problem.

It's always best to diagnose and treat periodontal disease in its earliest form. But, even if you have severe periodontitis requiring tooth removal and tooth replacements, the St. Tammany Periodontics & Implants team has everything you need to reclaim good oral health. 

How does periodontal disease therapy work?

Periodontal therapy at St. Tammany Periodontics & Implants depends upon the severity of the disease. A common approach is a deep dental cleaning, or scaling and root planing. During this type of treatment, the team removes plaque and tartar from the teeth, underneath the gums, and around the tooth roots. The treatment is a good choice for mild-to-moderate periodontitis. 

If you have advanced periodontitis, a periodontal procedure is usually the best treatment approach.

The St. Tammany Periodontics & Implants team offers a wide range of periodontal treatment procedures, all focused on helping you to maintain your natural teeth. 

Whenever possible, the team performs procedures using state-of-the-art lasers rather than traditional scalpels and tools. The laser maintains optimal cleanliness while reducing discomfort, eliminating sutures, and speeding up the recovery process.

If you have severe periodontitis requiring tooth removal, the team can skillfully replace your teeth using computer-guided implant treatment. With severe periodontitis, you may need a sinus lift or other bone restoration procedure prior to your dental implant procedure. 

The team uses regenerative medicine like L-PRF ®, which comes from your own blood to stimulate rapid healing when you need a sinus lift or other types of bone and tissue restoration.

The team at St. Tammany Periodontics & Implants uses digital impressions, including a 3-D CT scan, to get the most accurate mouth measurements, then uses a cutting-edge 3-D printing process to make your tooth restorations on-site.

Periodontal disease doesn’t have to mean the end of good oral health. Call St. Tammany Periodontics & Implants or click the online appointment button to schedule your consultation!