FAQ » Caring for Gums Infected with Periodontal Disease

Caring for Gums Infected with Periodontal Disease

You probably learned to clean your teeth when you were a child. The techniques and tools that were effective then are not sufficient to maintain your teeth and gums now that they have been damaged by periodontal disease.

In a healthy mouth, the space between the tooth and gums (called the sulcus) is normally only two to three millimeters deep. It's not difficult to clean that at home with careful brushing. But when you have periodontal disease, the sulcus deepens, for m ing "pockets" around your teeth. These are deeper than three millimeters, so they're notorious hiding places for plaque and disease-causing bacteria. Another problem when you have periodontal disease has to do with the shape of the roots of yours, for teeth. If there is no periodontal disease, the bone level is high and the gums attach firmly at the necks of the teeth. You can easily wrap floss around this surface and do a thorough job of keeping plaque off your teeth.

But periodontal disease decreases the attachment of the bone and gums to your teeth. The root surfaces are often exposed, and they have small indentations in them. Floss glides over these indentations, missing the plaque hiding inside. You need to use special tools to reach down beyond the normal three millimeters to thoroughly clean the indentations in the sides of the roots. There are tools made specifically for each area of your mouth. We will work with you to customize a plaque-removal system, and to use teach you how to use that system at