The most common types of periodontal treatments are:
- Gum graft surgery
- Regenerative procedures
- Dental crown lengthening
- Periodontal pocket procedures
Gum Graft Surgery
Exposed tooth roots are the result of gum recessions. Gum graft surgery can be done to cover the exposed root/s and to help prevent further recession and bone loss.
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Regenerative Procedures
Your periodontist may recommend a regenerative procedure when the bone supporting your teeth has been damaged by periodontal disease. These procedures can reverse some of the damage, by regenerating lost bone and tissue.
Dental Crown Lengthening
Some people have “gummy” smiles because the teeth appear short. In fact, the teeth may actually be the proper lengths, but they are covered with too much gum tissue. To correct this, your periodontist performs a dental crown lengthening procedure.
Your periodontist may also recommend dental crown lengthening to make a restorative or cosmetic dental procedure possible. Crown lengthening adjusts the gum and bone level to expose more of the tooth so it can be restored.
Periodontal Pocket Procedures
Your bone and gum tissue should fit snugly around your teeth like a turtleneck around your neck. When you have periodontal disease, some of the supporting tissue and bone are destroyed, forming “pockets” around the teeth.
Over time, these pockets become deeper, providing the ideal space for bacteria to thrive. This leads to further bone and tissue loss. Eventually, if too much bone is lost, the teeth become loose and may need to be extracted.
During a periodontal pocket procedure, your periodontist folds back the gum tissue and removes the disease-causing bacteria before securing the tissue back into place. In some cases, irregular surfaces of the damaged bone are smoothed to limit areas where disease-causing bacteria can hide. This allows the gum tissue to better reattach to healthy bone.
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Our periodontist can help you with:
Pieter has placed over four thousand dental implants, done hundreds of bone and gum grafts, and was one of the first Periodontists in the UK to provide immediate dental implants or ‘teeth in a day’. He is also one of a few Periodontists in the UK today that routinely uses a dental microscope for periodontal surgery. He is an expert in the provision of minimally invasive periodontal surgery.
Pieter has treated thousands of periodontal and dental implant patients in his career and is an expert in the analysis of CT scans. He’s used them for dental implant treatment planning since 1997, and the practice has owned a CT scanner for seven years.
If you would like to refer to Pieter or do a self-referral.
FAQs
A periodontist is a dentist who specialises in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of periodontitis, and in the placement of dental implants. Periodontists receive extensive training in both of these areas, and more. Their training typically includes three to four additional years of education beyond dental school.
Periodontitis is also known as periodontal or gum disease. Gum disease is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the gums and bone supporting the teeth.
In addition to handling challenging periodontal and dental implant cases, periodontists also provide a variety of other specialized services. These include bone & gum grafts (rebuilding lost bone & gum) and cosmetic periodontal surgery (such as treating gummy smiles).
While some general dentists treat less serious periodontal cases, many will refer their patients to periodontists to treat the more challenging cases. Similarly, while some general dentists perform dental implant procedures, many will refer their patients to periodontists for the more challenging cases.
If your general dentist refers you to a periodontist, it’s simply because the periodontist has the special skills, knowledge and experience to provide you with the type of periodontal treatment or implant procedure you need.
During your first visit, the periodontist usually reviews your medical and dental histories. It is very important for the periodontist to know if you are taking any medications or are being treated for any condition that might affect your periodontal care (such as heart disease, diabetes, or pregnancy).
Your periodontist will then examine your gums in detail, assess how your teeth come into contact with each other when biting, and check to see if any of your teeth are loose. Your periodontist will evaluate the health of your gums by placing a small measuring instrument (called a probe) in the spaces between your teeth and gums (called periodontal pockets) to measure the depth of those spaces. X-rays are usually also be taken to examine the health of the bone that support your teeth.
