How Does A Dentist Find Periodontal Disease?
1. perio probe readings greater than three millimeters 2. bleeding upon probing the gums 3. swollen and red gums, especially between the teeth 4. bone loss or calculus on your x-rays Periodontal Treatment The beginning of treatment of periodontal disease consists of cleaning the tooth surface, removing all plaque and tartar leaving a smooth surface, for patient comfort this is usually done under local anesthetic. Step two consists of cleaning the gum tissue of the biofilm embedded into the perio pocket (picture to the right). This can be accomplished using a couple different techniques. The CO2 laser is a very effective tool to eliminate the “red complex”. Sometime we place localized antibiotics directly into the effected areas, this product is called arrestin. If the entire mouth is affected, we will sometimes place the patient on a systemic antibiotic using information from DNA testing to find out exactly what bacteria has colonized in the perio pocket. The disease will never get bet
