• What is Scaling and Root Planing (deep cleaning?)
• What is a Flap Surgery?
• What is Osseous Surgery?
• What is the Bone Graft?
• What are Soft Tissue Grafts?
• What is a Gingivectomy Procedure?
• What is Crown Lengthening?
• What is the Sinus Lift Procedure?

What is Scaling and Root Planing (deep cleaning?)

Many times, the early stages of periodontal disease are best treated with non-surgical periodontal therapy. This usually consists of placing a fine ultrasonic tip and curette in between the tooth and gum tissue to remove any plaque and calculus below the gumline. This procedure is called root planing. Four to six weeks later, periodontal pockets are eliminated due to gum shrinkage. Then the patient can personally maintain these areas with routine brushing and flossing.
Even in most severe cases of periodontal disease, non-surgical periodontal therapy most often precedes surgical therapy. This is done so that the overall tissue quality is improved prior to surgery and also limits the areas of required surgery.

What is a Flap Surgery?

Your bone and gum tissue should fit snugly around your teeth like a turtleneck. When you have periodontal disease, this supporting tissue and bone is destroyed, forming "pockets" around the teeth. Over time, these pockets become deeper, providing a larger space for bacteria to thrive and wreak havoc.
As bacteria accumulate and advance under the gum tissue in these deep pockets, additional bone and tissue loss follow. Eventually, if too much bone is lost, the teeth will need to be extracted.
Flap surgery is sometimes performed to remove tartar deposits in deep pockets or to reduce the periodontal pocket and make it easier for you or your dental professional to keep the area clean. This common surgery involves lifting back the gums and removing the tartar. The gums are then sutured back in place so that the tissue fits snugly around the tooth again.
A pocket reduction procedure is recommended if daily at-home oral hygiene and a professional care routine cannot effectively reach these deep pockets.
In some cases, irregular surfaces of the damaged bone are smoothed to limit areas where disease-causing bacteria can hide. This allows the gum tissue to better reattach to healthy bone.
In some cases, bone may be smoothed and reshaped so that plaque has fewer places to grow; and repaired (grafted) with bone from another part of the body or with man-made materials. A lining on the bone graft may be placed to help the bone grow back. The lining may need to be removed later.
The flap procedure should cure your gum disease if you maintain good dental care after the surgery. Your gums should become pink and healthy again.

What is Osseous Surgery?
Osseous (meaning "bone") surgery involves removing and/or reshaping the jawbone under the gum. Such a procedure is called for not because of gum disease per se, but because of most of the damage that occurs in the underlying bone. Actually, gum disease and its attendant infection that spreads below the gum tissue can destroy the bone structure below. The bone becomes irregularly shaped, preventing the gum from laying down flat.

What is the Bone Graft?
The term "periodontal defect" generally refers to a loss of bone and tooth attachment around the roots of your teeth. It is sometimes also called a "periodontal pocket," which refers to the small pocket of empty space that forms between the tooth root and the bone.
Why does bone grafting help?
By including bone grafting in an overall procedure to restore the tooth's attachment, dentists have found that they can regenerate lost bone and the ligaments that hold a tooth to that bone, restoring your tooth to its original state and insuring that you will have use of it for a good long time.
What is the procedure?
The doctor will make an incision and pull back the gum tissue around the tooth (called "flap surgery") to gain access to the tooth root and surrounding bone. The tooth root is cleaned via a procedure called "scaling and planing" to remove all accumulated tartar and calculus so that the tooth will reattach to periodontal ligaments. The bone grafting material is placed in the area of missing bone and the gum tissues are replaced and sutured closed.

What are Soft Tissue Grafts?
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 source to cover the exposed root. This can be done for one tooth or several teeth to even your gum line and reduce sensitivity.
What are the benefits of this procedure?
A soft tissue graft can reduce further recession and bone loss. In some cases, it can cover exposed roots to protect them from decay. This may reduce tooth sensitivity and improve esthetics of your smile. Whether you have crown lengthening to improve function or esthetics, patients often receive the benefits of both: a beautiful new smile and improved periodontal health & your keys to smiling, eating and speaking with comfort and confidence.

Soft tissue grafts are sometimes performed to treat gum disease, or correct other abnormalities.
The procedure involves taking gum tissue from the palate or another donor source to cover an exposed root in order to even the gum line and reduce sensitivity.
Periodontal procedures are available to stop further dental problems and gum recession, and to improve the esthetics of your gum line. For example, an exposed tooth root resulting from gum recession may not be causing you pain or sensitivity, but is causing one or more of your teeth to look longer than the others. In other cases, an exposed tooth rooth causes sever pain because it is exposed to extremes in temperatures or different kinds of food and liquids.
Once contributing factors are controlled, a soft tissue graft procedure will repair the defect and help to prevent additional recession and bone loss.

What is a Gingivectomy Procedure?
A gingivectomy is necessary when the gums have pulled away from the teeth, creating deep pockets. The pockets make it hard to clean away plaque. Gingivectomy is usually done before gum disease has damaged the bone supporting your teeth. The procedure involves removing and reshaping loose, diseased gum tissue to get rid of pockets between the teeth and gums. After removing the gum tissue, a puttylike substance is placed over your gum line. This will protect your gums while they heal. If you maintain good dental care after surgery, a gingivectomy is likely to stop gum disease.

What is Crown Lengthening?
When getting a Crown, the General Dentist must prepare your tooth to receive the Crown. Sometimes there is not enough tooth surface above the gumline to accomplish this. A Periodontist can do CROWN LENGTHENING to provide more tooth surface. This ensures a more stable Crown with less gum irritation. Also, if you have a "gummy" smile or an uneven gum line, CROWN LENGTHENING can make your teeth look longer and more even.

What is the Sinus Lift Procedure?