Periodontal Treatment

The goal of specialist periodontal treatment is to retain painless and functional teeth. This is done by cleaning thoroughly the pockets surrounding your teeth and implants so as to arrest or slow down the damage of the supporting gum and bone. You have the best chance for successful periodontal treatment when you also have a daily routine of good oral care and stop tobacco use.

Oral Hygiene

Daily preventive care, including proper brushing, interdental brushing and flossing, will help stop problems before they develop and is much less painful, expensive, and worrisome than treating conditions that have been allowed to progress.

Healthy teeth and implants do not only enable you to look and feel good, they make it possible to eat and speak properly. Good oral health is important to your overall well-being.

Non-Surgical Periodontal & Peri-Implant Conditions

Scaling & Root Planing

Non-Surgical Debridement

Scaling is a professional procedure of removing calculus (tartar ) and bacteria from the surface of your teeth or implant and below the gum line. It may be performed using a combination of manual, machine-driven instruments and Air-flow devices.

As specialists, we undergo extensive training and achieve clinical expertise in using Air-flow devices (high pressure guided spray with specified choice of powder) and in applying the use of laser devices as adjuncts to periodontal therapy.

Root planing is a process of selective smoothing over the root surfaces, discouraging further buildup of tartar and bacteria. Currently it is done selectively and in a very delicate, minimally invasive method with maximum effort focused on preserving the tooth, root and the gum surface and shape (also known as periodontal debridement). 

During treatment, you will be given detailed and tailored instructions on how to keep up with your oral hygiene between appointments, as this is important to help maintain healthy gums.

Surgical Periodontal & Peri-Implant Conditions

Flap Surgery

Pocket Elimination or Reduction Surgery

Flap surgery is a process of lifting back your gum to allow cleaning of the roots of your teeth or the implant surface. This is done by making tiny incisions in your gums, reflecting the gum and cleaning the affected areas below the surface of your gums. 

In some cases, the underlying bone may be recontoured before the gum tissue is sutured (stitched) back in to place. 

Soft Tissue Grafts

Periodontitis and peri-implantitis often causes the gumline to recede, which is a result of damage to the soft tissue. When this occurs, the soft tissue needs to be built back up. To do this, small amounts of tissue are taken from the roof of the mouth and reattached to the damaged areas. This treatment helps to reduce further gum recession, cover up the exposed roots of the teeth and cosmetically enhance the look of your teeth and smile.

As an alternative to donating soft tissue from your own palate, synthetic gum tissues can be used in selected cases and grafted to the area of the recession.

Bone Grafting

If periodontitis or peri-implantitis has developed and the bone surrounding your teeth have degraded, bone grafting is required. There are three methods to adding bone including using small fragments of your own bone, use of synthetic bone or from a donated source. When bone has been added to the surrounds of your teeth or implant(s) during a bone grafting procedure, loss of teeth is prevent. In time, the newly added bone will forge with your existing bone and encourage regrowth of your natural bone.

A bone grafting procedure is also often indicated before or during implant surgery shall there be insufficient native bone to house the intended implants in their jaws. 

Guided Tissue Regeneration

When bone has been destroyed by bacteria, guided tissue regeneration is required. To begin the procedure, the gum is folded back to allow removal of disease-causing bacteria. Once completed, bone grafts, membranes and/or tissue-stimulating proteins are inserted in between the gum and teeth. This will encourage gum tissue to regenerate naturally around your teeth and prevent unwanted tissue from invading the affected areas during healing. As a result, natural growth factors will stabilise and allow your bone to grow back.

The choice of bone grafting materials, types of membranes and options of tissue-stimulating proteins should be individually customised by your periodontist in accordance to your condition.

Antibiotics

Specific topical (local) or systemic (pills) antibiotics have shown to help in controlling the gum disease. Alternatively, the insertion of a gel containing antibiotics in the space between your teeth and gums can be helpful. However, this is case-specific and not everyone can benefit from it in the long-term. 

Holistic Periodontal Approach

Gum diseases have been proven to be a contributing factor in diabetes, heart disease, stroke, metabolic syndrome and low birth weight. We believe that many dental conditions can be managed by taking a holistic approach to patient care.

This means conducting a thorough assessment of your overall health conditions that include dental history, medical history, review of medications and supplements, and lifestyle analysis.

An holistic assessment such as this allows identification and diagnosis of imbalance in different aspects that may have contributed to diseases. We ensure the focus is not solely on symptoms, but on finding and managing the cause of the problem. This method enables us to establish the best possible treatment plan to help patients achieve optimal health and wellbeing and sustain it long-term.

In many cases, the first step in a periodontal specialist treatment plan is a non-surgical and non-invasive approach to treat gum diseases.

This is accomplished through an individualised holistic periodontal therapy that may include:

• Ultrasonic devices

• Manual instrumentation

• Air flow powder therapy 

• Adjunctive laser therapy

• Adjunctive use of herbal antiseptics

• Tailor-made home oral hygiene instructions

• Integrated care (working together with your primary care provider to assist in diagnosing and correcting imbalances overall health)

Any surgical or invasive procedure carries risks. Before proceeding with a surgical or invasive procedure, you should seek opinion from an appropriately qualified health practitioner.