What is Gum Disease?
Gum (periodontal) disease is an infection of the supporting tissues of the teeth. It is typically caused by poor oral hygiene habits that allow plaque to build up on the teeth and harden, eventually affecting the gums.
If left untreated, gum disease can lead to a variety of oral health issues including inflamed and bleeding gums, a receding gum line, bacteria-filled pockets between the teeth and gums, and eventual bone loss.
Our Board-Certified Periodontist
Dr. Nathalie Pauletto is a board-certified periodontist in Kelowna who works with Landmark Dental Centre to help provide advanced and specialty periodontal care to our patients.
From more involved scaling and root planing procedures to gum grafts, implant placements, laser gum treatments, cosmetic procedures, and more, our dentists are able to call on the expertise of Dr. Pauletto when our patients need her experience and qualifications to help achieve the treatment outcomes they desire.
Gum Disease Therapy
Periodontal treatment methods will depend on the kind and severity of the disease. Our dentists and board-certified periodontist will work with you to craft a treatment plan that is tailored to your particular case.
Once your periodontal treatment has been completed, our dental team will recommend that you have regular dental examinations and preventive therapy conducted on your smile up to 4 times per year to protect your oral health.
- Preventive Gum Therapy
If the disease is caught in the early stages, preventive therapy will be recommended.
Regular hygiene cleanings and exams are important for maintaining the health of your gums.
Through the practice of good at-home oral hygiene and eating a balanced diet, you are also able to significantly reduce your chances of ever developing gum disease.
- Non-Surgical Gum Therapy
For patients with mild gum disease, a deep cleaning performed by a dental hygienist, dentist or periodontist may be enough to reverse it.
The dental professional will scrape away the plaque and tartar around and below your gum line, smoothing over rough areas that are left behind in a process called scaling and root planing.
- Surgical Gum Therapy
When patients with more advanced forms of gum disease seek treatment, more invasive surgical interventions may be required to reverse it.
There are a few different types of surgical gum therapy such as gum grafting and bone grafting.
- Laser Treatments
Landmark Dental Centre hs a Kavo KEY3 laser that we use for our periodontal treatments. This piece of technology can assist us in addressing oral health issues from bleeding gums to deep pockets around the teeth where infection-causing plaque and calculus build-up.
This technology has the ability to analyze the area below your gum line, identify pockets of calculus, and guide our dental professionals in removing it using the laser.
Cosmetic Gum Therapy
If your gums sit too low or too high on your teeth and you are becoming unhappy with your smile, gum grafting surgery may be a suitable cosmetic treatment option for you.
This procedure can help to even out your gum line and reduce the perceived length of your teeth in order to provide you with a smile that you can be proud of.
Placing Dental Implants
Periodontics can also include the placement of dental implants beneath the gum line of a patient as part of the process for replacing missing teeth.
Once a dental implant has been placed, your gums have healed, and a tooth replacement has been added, this procedure is able to offer a number of benefits to a person's oral health.