What is peridontal surgery ?
Periodontal surgery may be necessary when the tissue around your teeth is unhealthy and cannot be repaired with non-surgical treatment. The following are the four main types of surgical treatment most commonly prescribed and your Periodontist will discuss with you the advantages and disadvantages of each treatment:
1. Pocket Reduction Procedures
2. Regenerative Procedures
3. Crown Lengthening
4. Soft Tissue Grafts
2. Regenerative Procedures
3. Crown Lengthening
4. Soft Tissue Grafts
1. Pocket reduction procedures : Your bone and gum tissue should fit snugly around your teeth. In periodontal disease, the supporting gum and bone is destroyed and pockets develop. Eventually, if too much bone is lost, the teeth will need to be extracted. Your Periodontist has measured the depth of your pocket(s). A pocket reduction procedure has been recommended because you have pockets that are too deep to clean with daily at-home oral hygiene and a professional care routine. During this procedure, your Periodontist folds back the gum tissue and removes the disease-causing bacteria before securing the tissue into place. In some cases, irregular surfaces of the damaged bone are smoothed to limit areas where disease-causing bacteria can hide.
2. Regenerative procedures : With time, plaque can spread and grow below the gum line, along the roots of the teeth. If there is more plaque than your body’s immune system can cope with, the infection continues to spread. A space, known as a ‘pocket’, develops between the gum and the tooth, as the socket bone is gradually eroded away. As the disease progresses, the pockets deepen and more gum tissue and bone are destroyed. Often, this destructive process has very few symptoms. However, if untreated, the teeth can become loose and may have to be removed.
3. Crown lengthening : Your Dentist or Periodontist may also recommend crown lengthening to make a restorative or cosmetic dental procedure possible. Perhaps your tooth is decayed, broken below the gum line, or has insufficient tooth structure for a restoration, such as a crown or bridge. Crown lengthening adjusts the gum and bone level to expose more of the tooth so it can be restored. The side effects of this treatment can include: 1. Possible poor aesthetics due to ‘black triangles’ 2. Root sensitivity 3. Infection in the tooth 4. Transient looseness of the teeth 5. Gum may grow back
4. Soft tissue grafts: Your gums may have receded for a variety of reasons, including aggressive tooth brushing or periodontal disease. You may not be in control of what caused the recession, but prior to treatment your Periodontist can help you identify the factors contributing to the problem. Once these contributing factors are controlled, a soft tissue graft procedure will repair the defect and help to prevent additional recession and bone loss. Soft tissue grafts can be used to cover roots or develop gum tissue where absent due to excessive gingival recession. During this procedure, your Periodontist takes gum tissue from your palate or another donor site within the mouth to cover the exposed root. This can be done for one tooth or several teeth to even your gum line and reduce sensitivity. This procedure can sometimes fail due to the graft not taking.
