Periodontal Care in Chelsea for Healthy Gums and Lasting Smiles

Bone grafting is a surgical procedure that replaces missing bone that has been lost following the removal or loss of an adult tooth. Bone grafting usually takes place as a preliminary treatment before tooth replacement using dental implants.

While bone grafting is a fairly involved kind of oral surgery, it’s a procedure that makes it possible for more patients with a variety of dental situations to permanently replace their teeth. Not so long ago, patients who had lost significant amounts of bone due to missing teeth were told they weren’t eligible for dental implants. These patients were limited to less ideal or naturalistic solutions, such as bridges or dentures. Thankfully, dental technology and techniques have advanced so that bone grafting is a commonplace procedure that opens up a whole new world of beautiful and functional smiles to patients in need.

In a crown lengthening, the crown being referred to is the crown portion of your natural tooth. Dental crown lengthening is when gum tissue and/or bone is removed to expose more of a tooth, usually in order to repair it. If you have a tooth that is broken off at the gum line due to an accident or tooth decay, the dentist will need to perform a crown lengthening before repairing the tooth. That’s because there just isn’t enough tooth structure above the gums for an artificial crown (or a filling) to attach to. Trying to fit a crown on such a tiny foundation would make it ill-fitting, uncomfortable, and at a higher risk of irritation, chronic inflammation, and further tooth decay and damage. It’s a better choice to remove some of the tissue around your tooth and seat the crown properly.

Periodontal disease, commonly called gum disease, can lead to more than just an unsightly smile—it can cause loss of teeth and eventually, if left untreated, other more serious health problems.

Called gingivitis in its early stages, periodontal disease is caused by excessive toxic bacteria (found in plaque) that attack your mouth’s soft tissues. Early warning signs of this disease include red, swollen, or bleeding gums. If caught early, we can help you reverse the damage. If detected late, we can use one of the many effective restorative dentistry procedures to restore your mouth to its healthy and beautiful state. We can help you keep your teeth and gums strong and disease-free with regular examinations and cleans plus specialised interventions to treat periodontal disease if needed.

Gum Disease Treatment

If you have been diagnosed with periodontal disease, we will recommend that you come in for a deep clean. While it may sound like just a more intense teeth clean, deep cleans are actually the gold standard of treatment for patients diagnosed with gum disease. This procedure is also sometimes referred to as “scaling and root planing” or “periodontal therapy.”

In periodontal disease, swollen, unhealthy gums start to pull away from the teeth because pockets form where infection-causing plaque and tartar accumulate. During a deep clean, the dentist or hygienist removes plaque, tartar, and bacteria from the surfaces of your teeth and tooth roots. The dentist or hygienist then smoothes the surface of the tooth root to make it harder for bacteria to stick in the future and easier for the gums to reattach.

In periodontal disease, swollen, unhealthy gums start to pull away from the teeth, often leading to gum recession, which can cause pain and sensitivity. Gum grafting can help restore the gum’s covering on teeth and reduce sensitivity.

Your gums are a very important part of maintaining oral health and keeping your teeth healthy. They protect the roots of your teeth by creating a seal around them. Keeping your gums healthy will help you avoid infections as well as gum recession, which can be caused by over-brushing, periodontal disease, and bruxism (teeth grinding).

Regardless of the cause, gum recession can expose areas of your teeth that aren’t protected by enamel, causing pain and sensitivity. Because this allows bacteria to completely bypass the protective layers of teeth, gum recession can also cause greater tooth decay, which in turn can mean you’ll need root canals or extractions sooner. Additionally, gum recession can negatively impact your smile by making your teeth appear longer.

In a gum grafting procedure, gum tissue is taken from the soft palate (at the back of the roof of the mouth) to cover areas of the teeth exposed by gum recession. This graft helps protect exposed areas of the teeth and roots from bacteria and tartar and helps reduce pain and sensitivity.

Mild cases of gum recession can be treated with scaling and root planing, a noninvasive procedure in which your dentist cleans areas exposed by gum recession, as well as spaces underneath your gums that are prone to collecting decay-causing bacteria. In advanced cases where scaling and root planing are not enough to treat gum recession, a gum grafting procedure attaches new gum tissue to exposed areas of the teeth and roots.

A gum lift is also called a gingival lift, or a gingivectomy, “gingiva” being the medical term for gum tissue and “-ectomy” meaning surgical removal. The gum lift procedure involves removing a small amount of gum tissue where your gums meet your teeth. This is usually only done on your top front teeth because they are visible when you smile and speak.

Gum lifts are also called gum contouring. When the procedure is referred to this way, it may be less about correcting a gummy smile than evening out the gum line. Some patients have more gum tissue covering the tops of some teeth than others, leading to a smile that appears asymmetrical. Gum contouring can fix this illusion and create a more even-looking smile, no braces required.

In periodontal disease, swollen, unhealthy gums start to pull away from the teeth because of pockets where infection-causing plaque and tartar accumulate. Pocket depth reduction surgery clears infected tissue, bacteria, and tartar from these pockets and adjusts the gum so that the size of the pocket is reduced, helping avoid further infection in the future.

Pocket depth is usually measured as an indicator of how severe gum disease is. If you have gum disease that’s too advanced to be treated with scaling and root planing, your dentist may recommend pocket depth reduction surgery.

Pocket depth reduction, also called flap surgery, is a procedure that helps prevent the accumulation of bacteria and tartar under gum tissue. After the infected tissue, bacteria, and tartar are cleared away, the gum is adjusted to reduce the space (the pocket) between infected gum tissue and teeth. Minimising this pocket helps keep more bacteria and tartar from collecting and infecting gum tissue in the future.

While pocket depth reduction surgery cannot cure periodontal disease, it can slow or stop its progression. The purpose of this procedure is to both remove infected tissue and prevent subsequent accumulation of infection-causing bacteria and tartar.

If you have gum disease, your dentist may recommend that scaling and root planing, along with periodontal maintenance checkups, become part of your routine dental visits, just like your cleans and exams.

While scaling and root planing cannot cure periodontal disease, it can slow or stop its progression. The point of this procedure is to remove the bacteria-filled plaque and tartar that inflame your gums and the surrounding bone. Scaling and root planing can reduce the need for surgical intervention in the future and often help swollen, bleeding gums become healthy and pink again.

Scaling and root planing is the gold standard of treatment for patients diagnosed with gum disease (i.e., periodontitis). This procedure is sometimes referred to as “deep clean” or simply “periodontal therapy.” If you have periodontitis that is at risk of getting worse, the dentist may recommend scaling and root planing to keep your gum disease from advancing. However, you should know that this is not a procedure that you can just undergo once and then forget about it. We may recommend that you continue to come in for scaling and root planing as necessary to keep your mouth as healthy as possible despite your condition.

We use the Pinhole® Surgical Technique to fix receding gums and quickly improve your smile. This technique provides immediate results and almost no healing time or symptoms.

Your gums are a very important part of maintaining oral health and keeping your teeth healthy. They protect the roots of your teeth by creating a seal around them. Keeping your gums healthy will help you avoid infections as well as gum recession, which can be caused by over-brushing, periodontal disease, and bruxism (teeth grinding).

Regardless of the cause, gum recession can expose areas of your teeth that aren’t protected by enamel, causing pain and sensitivity. Because bacteria can completely bypass the protective layers of teeth, gum recession can also cause greater tooth decay, which in turn can mean you’ll need root canals or extractions sooner. Additionally, gum recession can negatively impact your smile by making your teeth appear longer.

Mild cases of gum recession can be treated by scaling and root planing, a noninvasive procedure in which your dentist cleans areas exposed by gum recession, as well as spaces underneath your gums that are prone to collecting decay-causing bacteria. The usual techniques for treating more advanced gum recession involve time-consuming, painful grafts that take a long time to heal. The Pinhole® Surgical Technique does not use incisions, scalpels, or sutures; takes much less time than grafting; creates less discomfort; and heals much more quickly. We are proud to be one of the few dental offices in Australia offering this advanced treatment method.

What Is the Pinhole® Surgical Technique?

The Pinhole® Surgical Technique was created by Dr. John Chao to treat gum recession less invasively and more quickly than traditional grafting techniques. It is more comfortable and has a faster recovery time than traditional techniques and involves no incisions, scalpels, or sutures.