How the UK’s Leading Periodontal Treatment and Prevention Clinic Can Help
Periodontal disease, more commonly known as gum disease, is an oral disease that can damage and destroy gums and bones that support the structure of your teeth. If left untreated, gum disease can potentially cause tooth loss and further oral health complications.
Gum disease is widespread in the UK, with up to 9 in 10 people having some form of it.
At Al-FaPerio, our team of experienced specialists can eliminate gum disease, halt receding gums and regenerate gum tissue that’s already been lost.
At Al-FaPerio, we use an innovative and unique laser gum treatment system. Our team of experienced specialists can eliminate gum disease, halt receding gums and regenerate gums that were initially lost.
Gum disease is widespread in the UK, with up to 9 in 10 people having some form of it. Our innovative laser technology enables us to perform periodontal treatment to remove gum disease successfully, encouraging the regeneration of your gums.
We provide dependable periodontal treatment for gum disease via:
- An established specialist clinic since 2004
- A multi-award-winning periodontal practice
- An experienced team of respected dentists
- The first UK periodontist to actively use laser treatment
- Dedicated research and case studies on gum disease
- We use innovative technology for all planned treatments
- Dispelling myths about gum disease
- Periodontal treatment for gum disease
Periodontal Treatment Planning
We specialise in customising your treatment plans so that they reflect your exact needs and requirements. Hence, we not only developed a specific process for diagnosing your condition that highlights the most pertinent aspects that need addressing, but we have also developed a unique method of treatment planning so you can receive a gum disease cure as soon as possible.
Our Aim
We aim to facilitate your exact needs by working closely with you and your dentist.
We like to involve our patients at every stage of the assessment, including treatment planning, as we feel it is vital that you have control as it pertains to your treatment.
This can only be achieved by fully understanding all the possible advantages and disadvantages of all the possible recommendations we make.
Periodontal Treatment Planning
We have all of the latest techniques and equipment at our disposal, which means we can provide some of the most cutting-edge, highly innovative periodontal treatments.
Even as experts in laser gum treatments, we’re constantly undergoing training and professional development to make sure we can live up to the constant industry changes and deliver the best periodontal treatments for our patients.
Visit us for a periodontal examination and assessment.
There are four main things we look at when treating periodontal issues:
- Reduction of Pockets: Our treatment aims to reduce if not eliminate all pockets in the gingivae.
- Clinical Re-attachment: We want the gums to firmly reattach themselves around the tooth/implant to hold it securely in place.
- Gum Aesthetics: Either gum grafting or gum re-shaping can be used in re-solving tooth or smile cosmetics.
- Improved Bones Levels: Through our treatment with either bone augmentation, bone grafting or laser bone regeneration, we aim to improve the bone levels surrounding the tooth/implant. This provides better support for the teeth/implants.
When we plan the stages of periodontal treatment, we also take into consideration your comfort levels and your preferences in treatments. The treatment plans we create must be cost-effective, comfortable for you and provide long-lasting results.
Personalised Report
To help your understanding further and to help you make the correct choices for your mouth, we provide a personalised report of all our findings and our specific recommendations. We aim to be transparent in the way we do business.
Measuring Gum Disease
Periodontal Probe
At Al-FaPerio, we use something called a periodontal probe to assess the severity of your gum disease.
The Florida Periodontal Probe is used for measuring the pockets of the gums and enables us to determine the level of infection present, and formulate a treatment plan to eliminate this.
Gum measurements are an invaluable part of our periodontal assessment before any treatment, and this piece of technology enables us to get accurate results with consistency over time.
During the measuring process, the probe applies a constant level of small pressure. The clinician cannot apply any greater force leading to false readings. Hence, the results obtained for each measurement at any given moment in time are consistently accurate. This allows us to compare results and thus, accurately assess improvements.
Periodontal treatment for gum disease
It is imperative to treat periodontal disease or gum disease as quickly as possible.
With many misconceptions and myths surrounding gum disease, it is best to contact your dentist as soon as you detect symptoms that you believe could be related to the disease. This will help reduce the amount of harm caused and secure the option of future dental implants.
There is no need to be scared or worried, and no matter how severe your case is, we will guide you to which treatment is most appropriate for your situation.
There are Several Treatment Types Available:
Deep Cleaning
When treating gum disease, the goal is to control your infection. The best place to start for this is with a deep-cleaning procedure. Deep cleaning differs from regular cleaning because it reaches under the gum line and uses specific instruments.
We can also do something called scaling as part of the cleaning. This involves scraping off tartar both above and below your gum line. Root planing is another aspect of deep cleaning, which is when the rough surfaces of the roots of your teeth are smoothed out. It helps the gums reattach to your tooth. Both methods may take more than one visit to the dentist.
Medication
Some dentists may prescribe medication as part of the treatment procedure. Typical medication types include:
- Antiseptic Chip or Antibiotic Microspheres: These are tiny gels or particles that you insert into pockets in your gum, and they release medication slowly over time to help reduce the size of the pocket and get rid of bacteria.
- Antibiotic Gel: You spread this on gum pockets after a deep cleaning to help control and prevent infection.
- Enzyme Suppressant: This comes in tablet form and should be consumed after a deep cleaning to block certain enzymes in your mouth from breaking down gum tissue.
- Oral Antibiotics: These are appropriate for more severe infections, and you can swallow them as capsules or tablets.
Surgery
If the deep cleaning and the use of medications are not successful in healing your gum disease, then your dentist may recommend going ahead with the operation. This could mean one of a range of treatments, including laser gum surgery:
Gum Graft Surgery: A surgeon takes tissue from another part of your mouth your palate and covers any exposed tooth roots to prevent bone loss or decay and help sensitive teeth.
Flap Surgery: Your gums are lifted so the surgeon can access tartar deep underneath your gum line. Then she stitches your gum back in place, so it is tight around the tooth to help prevent more tartar from forming.
The most important thing to remember is that whatever your stage of gum disease, we will find the most effective treatment possible.
Periodontal treatment for gum disease
The first stage of periodontal treatment is almost always a non-surgical treatment. This involves three stages:
- Oral Hygiene Instruction: It may sound simple, but cleaning your teeth and gums effectively is not an easy task. We need to teach you how to carry out effective home care to treat the disease and make sure that it remains stable once treated. Whatever treatment we carry out will not be effective unless you can achieve a high standard of oral hygiene, because you are battling against the cause of the disease, for example, plaque, every day.
- Mechanical Cleaning: This involves removal of all the plaque, bacteria, toxins, inflamed tissue and hard calculus deposits above and below the gumline, along with smoothing any restorations, such as fillings, which may act as plaque traps. The root surfaces are cleaned and smoothed with special instruments, in some cases with a laser. The procedure uses a local anaesthetic so that it is entirely painless. The main side effects to expect once the anaesthetic wears off include some pain or soreness, which is easily relieved with over-the-counter painkillers and mouthwash, sensitivity to hot and cold, and some recession. With the exception of recession, all of these side effects are short-lived.
- Reassessment: This is carried out two months after the completion of active treatment. At this stage, the pockets are re-measured. The hope is that the gum sticks back to the tooth, thereby eliminating the pocket, and therefore the area around the tooth that can harbour infection. It may be that some pockets remain following initial therapy, and reassessment helps determine why this is the case. Decisions can then be made about what can be done about it. This may involve further oral hygiene instruction, scaling, use of antibiotics or surgical management.
Other Treatment Options
For mild and moderate periodontal disease, non-surgical treatment is often all that is required. However, for some cases of moderate and advanced periodontitis, surgical treatment may also be required following initial therapy. These procedures are carried out using a local anaesthetic and allow us to move the gum out of the way so we can visibly see and access the deposits that need to be removed.
Frequently, we also re-shape the gum and bone, to achieve an end-point that allows you to clean as best as possible, and therefore help to keep the area stable once treated. Again, we use lasers for a lot of this process, making side effects, such as pain and bruising, far less likely.
Other surgical procedures include bone regeneration, gum grafting to treat recession, preparation of soft and hard tissues for placement of dental implants, removing roots from teeth that have several roots to prolong the life of the tooth, lengthening the crown of teeth to facilitate placement of crowns or improve appearance, and placement of dental implants.
Completion of Periodontal Treatment
Once active treatment is completed, for example, all pockets eliminated, and the disease stabilised, we usually enrol you into a maintenance program. This ensures that the disease remains stable so you won’t need to go through such an intensive course of treatment again.
Once an individual is susceptible to the destructive effects of plaque, then that person is always susceptible in the future. Areas may be prone to sudden bursts of further destruction which are unpredictable in nature. Maintenance visits, therefore, allow us to detect any new disease, or relapse, early enough to manage it simply. Further scaling and reinforcement of oral hygiene are also carried out during these visits.
Initially, maintenance often starts on a 3-4 monthly basis. However, they are prescriptive to you. Therefore, the aim is to increase the time between them gradually, but with the knowledge that they can be carried out more intensively if you undergo a period of rapid destruction.
Eventually, gum disease maintenance can be carried out by your own dentist or hygienist with guidance from the periodontist. Treating gum disease in this way is less costly and better for your health than replacing lost teeth. A very high standard of plaque control, along with regular check-ups with both your dentist and periodontist will significantly improve the chances of retaining your teeth for life.
Best gum disease treatment
In our experience, one of the best ways to treat and eliminate gum disease is periodontal laser therapy.
Laser gum treatment isn’t a standalone treatment and is used in conjunction with traditional periodontal treatment methods.
The treatment involved using a laser to access and remove inflamed gum tissue from around your tooth’s root, and also removes build-ups of plaque and tartar below and around the gumline.
From shorter healing and recovery periods and more precise targeting to less bleeding and pain, there are many reasons why laser therapy is fast becoming the preferred gum disease treatment method.
Treating advanced gum disease
It’s never too late to seek gum disease treatment.
Even if your disease has advanced to the point where you’ve lost bone around your teeth to the infection, there are still things we can do to get your oral health back on the right track and stop the disease from causing any more damage.
In some cases, it may be necessary to remove the affected tooth and, depending on how much bone you’ve lost, undergo bone graft surgery before replacing your tooth with a dental implant.
Our periodontists will also perform a thorough clean of your teeth, to remove build-ups of plaque and tartar from underneath and below the gumline and provide hygiene advice so that you can manage your gum disease effectively.
Treating gingivitis
Gingivitis is the earliest stage of gum disease, caused by a build-up of plaque and bacteria on your teeth.
It can easily be reversed by improving your oral health and seeing your hygienist regularly for professional cleanings to eliminate these build-ups.
The main signs of gingivitis include bleeding and swollen gums, so if you notice either of these or other unusual symptoms, book an appointment to see your dentist as soon as possible to stop the disease in its tracks.
Gum Disease Treatment FAQs
Do deep cleaning procedures hurt?
Deep cleaning is more thorough than the regular teeth cleanings you may have received during dental checkups.
Rather than removing built-up plaque from the surface of the tooth and around the gum line, deep cleanings go further below the gum line – which can cause mild discomfort for some patients.
To ensure maximum comfort during your deep cleaning appointments, your dentist will use a local or topical anaesthetic to numb the area before treatment commences.
After your deep cleaning treatment, you may notice some sensitivity, swelling and/or bleeding – but this is completely normal and should improve within a couple of days.
How long does deep cleaning take?
There’s no one answer to this question, as it depends on the patient and the condition of their gums.
Deep teeth cleaning usually takes between 1-4 hours, and typically, one side of the mouth is done per one-hour session, and the other during a separate visit a week or two later.
Sometimes, it may take your hygienist an hour to do the proper scaling and root planing in all four quadrants of your mouth, so you may require longer appointments – but it shouldn’t take more than four visits to complete your course of treatment.
Regardless of how long it takes, it’s important to remember that deep cleaning is an essential part of gum disease treatment.
To book an appointment with our expert periodontists here at Al-FaPerio Clinic, give us a call or fill out our online consultation form here and we’ll get back to you to confirm your appointment!
How often do I need to undergo deep cleaning treatments?
If you’re currently suffering from gum disease, you may need to undergo deep cleaning procedures every three months as part of your gum disease treatment.
If you have good oral and overall health, you may not need frequent deep cleanings – especially if you’re already having two regular cleanings a year – and you can have deep cleanings whenever you feel is necessary.
Some signs that you may require a deep dental clean include:
- Bad-tasting/smelling breath
- Receding gums
- Loose teeth
- Red or inflamed gums
- A large build-up of tartar (plaque that has hardened) around the gum line
Is surgery always necessary?
If you have advanced gum disease, you may need surgery – such as a gum graft or flap surgery – to address the problem if medication or deep cleaning hasn’t worked or if it isn’t an option.
During your initial consultation, we’ll make a surgical recommendation if we feel this may be the only treatment option for your gum disease.
Whatever the outcome, you can be sure of one thing when you come to Al-FaPerio for gum disease treatment:
Our experts will always find the most effective treatment possible and will do everything we can to help get your oral health back on the right track.
To find out more about our gum disease treatments, or to book an appointment with our periodontists in Essex, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
BOOK A CONSULTATION TODAY
You can call us on 020 8506 0701 or fill out the form here for more information on all our treatments.
