Gum Disease Diagnosis & Prevention

And the potential consequences if neglected.

At Alexandra Dental Care, we believe that a patient’s gum health is just as important as the condition of their teeth. Although problems with a tooth, such as dental decay or root canal infection, are perhaps better known, especially when causing pain; failure to look after the gums can also have some very negative consequences.

During your regular dental checks, we will always examine your gum health, continually assessing for any problems.

Gum health symptoms and problems

One of the problems with gum disease is that symptoms are not always that obvious to patients. Gum disease can be almost ‘silent’, although detectable with a thorough dental inspection. Where symptoms are present, our local Burton and Ashby patients may notice some of these possible symptoms.

• Sore or red and painful gums
• Blood when you spit after brushing your teeth
• Unpleasant taste in the mouth
• Bad breath (halitosis)

As noted though, these symptoms may not always be present and this is another good reason to make sure that your professional dental care is both regular and ongoing. Failure to look after your gum health may result in the loss of teeth, or teeth that become crooked due to the lack of the stability which would normally be offered by a healthy supporting bone structure.

Gum disease treatments

There are three general ways in which gum disease can be be treated.

Prevention – Although not actually ‘treating’ gum disease, prevention is the best option available. As well as professional care, making sure that you clean your teeth and use of dental floss, or an interdental brush, to clean between your teeth, is an excellent way to reduce the risk of gingivitis or periodontitis.

Scale and polish – Seeing the hygienist at Alexandra Dental Care every six months or so is an excellent way of keeping your gums healthy. In addition to offering advice on how to improve your oral health care, they will also thoroughly clean your teeth and gums using a treatment known as a ‘scale and polish’. This is an entirely non invasive procedure which will help to keep your teeth and gums in great shape.

‘Deep clean’ – Hopefully, our patients will never need this procedure but sometimes it does become necessary. It is only used when gum disease has become more advanced and is threatening to damage the bone structure. The treatment involves cleaning right down to the roots of the teeth and the bone and is quite invasive. This will be performed by a periodontist using local anaesthetic to help minimise any discomfort.

To help keep your gums healthy, please make sure that you see both the dentist and hygienist at Alexandra Dental Care on a regular basis. To make your appointment with us, call us on 01283 216347.

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