Keeping Teeth

Saw a new patient the other day. Nice lady in her middle 60's. When we did our normal new patient intra-oral examination, her teeth appeared to be healthy, both visually and on x-rays. But, when we checked her gum health, things were not good. In fact, several of her teeth were in jeopardy of being lost. Here's what has happened.

Inadequate oral hygiene (not flossing or brushing regularly enough and well enough) can allow a chronic gum inflammation to occur. This can cause the boney socket that the tooth sits in to deteriorate. When that socket has deteriorated too much, the tooth will fall out.

Traditional treatment for periodontal disease included- this is very gross- cutting and then pulling the gums away from the bone, scraping the calculus off the teeth deep in the pockets, then sewing everything back together. This usually led to a week of pretty significant discomfort.

Today, after local anesthesia, rather than cut the gums with a knife, we use the laser to allow access to the deeper part of the boney pocket. Then we scrap the calculus off the teeth. Having the laser at our disposal has several advantages. One, it kills the bacteria that's in the pockets between teeth and gums. Two, it can also kill the bacteria that's in the bone surrounding the teeth, allowing that bone to re-generate. That's something that we couldn't do before. Three, when a gum pocket forms, it develops a layer of tissue that must be removed in order for the gums to re-attached to the tooth. The laser does that very conservatively. Once everything is cleaned out, we apply some antibiotic directly into the pocket, insuring death of bacteria. There is almost never any post-operative discomfort.

This procedure dramatically increases the likelihood that this lady will keep her teeth for years to come.