A simple guide and information
• What is periodontitis?
• Symptoms?
• Prevent
• Who can help?
• How do we treat periodontitis?
• Time?
• Who can get periodontitis?
• Implants
• How to take care
What is periodontitis?
Periodontitis means infection of the supporting structures around the teeth, which include the gums, periodontal ligament, and the bone, surrounding each tooth. Periodontitis is a serious gum infection that damages the soft tissue and, without treatment, can destroy the bone that supports your teeth.
Periodontitis, also many times called gum infection or periodontal disease, begins with bacterial growth in your mouth, and may end – if not properly treated – with tooth loss.
Periodontitis means that the same bacteria, which can give you infection of the gums, now has gone in the pockets between the tooth and the gum. They are breaking down the fibers and the jawbone that holds the teeth.
Living with periodontal disease can cause aesthetic complications and bone loss of a serious nature. The color of healthy gums are rose. Red, swollen, and/or bleeding are symptoms of gingivitis (gum infection) and maybe even periodontitis.
Symptoms of periodontitis
• Bleeding gums, when you brush or floss your teeth.
• Bad breath.
• Red or swollen gums
• Loose teeth or changes in the position of your teeth.
• Receding gums.
• Pain when chewing.
The symptoms of periodontitis are very tricky. It is a silent disease, which means that it is not sure that you even are noticing that you have periodontitis, until the day comes, where your teeth starts to
move. Maybe your gums are bleeding when you are brushing or flossing, maybe even not. If you have bleeding gums you should contact your dental professional immediately.
Are you a smoker, then the symptoms of a gum infection could be even less. Maybe you do not have any bleeding at all, but unfortunately it doesn’t mean that you don’t have an infection in your mouth. If you are smoking the blood vessels in the gums contracts, which means that the gums has less blood supply and therefore they don’t bleed easily.
If you leave periodontitis untreated, you are risking loss of your gums, bone, and teeth. This can cause permanent damage. You should regularly watch for symptoms as written above. To date, scientist have found links between periodontal disease and number of health problems such as:
• Diabetes
• Heart disease
• Stroke, Alzheimer, Dementia
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Premature births or low-birth weight babies
Prevent
Identification of gum disease early is important. But even more important is how to prevent getting gum disease or periodontitis. Plaque is the primary cause of gum disease. Plaque is sticky bacteria which, if not removed quickly enough from your teeth, gets harder and turns into to tartar. Tartar, also called calculus, cannot be removed from the teeth by simple tooth brushing.
If you want to prevent getting gum disease or periodontitis, then it is very important to be throughout with your oral care every day. This involves not only tooth and tongue brushing, but also to get
the areas in between the teeth cleaned. Please don’t hesitate to ask your dental professional if you are in any doubt of how to do it or if you want to know if you really are getting it all away.
There are many techniques and it is not a natural talent to get a clean mouth. Important is to be systematic, so you will remember to touch all the tooth surfaces. Weather you should use and electric
toothbrush or not, really depends. Again, please ask your dental professional.
Who can help?
Dental professionals who are special educated in prevention and periodontal diseases.
Dental hygienists are professional, highly-trained dental practitioners who focus on disease prevention, through clinical intervention and education. Prevention is the fundamental to the management
of oral health.
Did you ever hear the name pocket, while having your dental examination? A dental pocket is the space in-between the tooth and the gum line. Ideally there should be maximum 3mm space. If the gums opens up, and shows 4mm and above, then it could be a start to periodontitis.
How do we treat periodontitis?
Periodontal treatments are very unique and the treatment plan can be very different from one person to another.
Many times the first treatment is non-surgical, where the goal is to stabilize the disease. This is being done with a professional dental cleaning above and below the gum line. The aim is to remove the plaque and calculus and to smoothen up the tooth surfaces.
In the majority of cases simple conservative (non-surgical) therapy stabilizes the periodontal disease. In more advanced cases periodontal surgery may be required to deal with deep-seated areas of inflammation and in some cases, we may be able to regenerate some of the bone that has been lost. Though what is even so important is to stop further decomposition.
To treat a periodontal disease in the dental chair, is one thing, but even more important is to learn how to do a proper dental hygiene at home. A successful treatment depends very much on the team work between the dental professional and the patient. A clean surface doesn’t make the gum infection or periodontitis to go away. It helps, but if your daily oral hygiene is not effective enough, then the success of the treatment is not possible.
If you have already lost a tooth or teeth to periodontal disease, you may want to consider dental implants as a permanent tooth replacement option.
Living with periodontal disease can cause aesthetic complications and bone loss of a serious nature.
Time?
The periodontitis treatment plan is very individual, and depend on many other things that how much calculus and rough tooth surfaces you have.
In most periodontal cases, the teeth cannot be cleaned throughout in just one time visit. Many times 4 appointments in a row, will be needed and then followed by several checkups and maybe repeated dental scaling and instructions. The treatment can last maybe even over a year or more, before a successful result will show. Consistency is one of the treatment keywords.
Who can get periodontitis?
Everyone can get periodontitis.
Typically periodontitis starts with an infection of the gums. If the gum infection is left untreated it can develop to periodontitis.
Some factors, which can increase the risk of getting periodontitis.
• Not brushing your teeth throughout every day
• Smoking
• Autoimmune illness and systemic diseases
• Dry mouth
• Weakened immune system caused by stress and diseases
• Hormonal changes and problems
Very rare cases shows an aggressive kind of periodontitis by teenagers, called juvenile periodontitis. This one can progress very quickly and can have irreversible consequences for life time. Therefore it is also by children and teenagers extremely important to have a good oral hygiene and go regularly for dental cleaning and checkup.
Implants
Peri-implantitis is periodontitis around implants.
Peri-implant diseases can develop and damage tissues and bone much more rapidly than is the case with periodontitis.
The treatment of peri-implantitis is the same as if you have periodontitis around your natural teeth, though it is usually much more difficult to treat.
How to take care of your teeth
• Brush your teeth throughout on a daily base
• Use a soft toothbrush maybe an electric toothbrush
• Use a good toothpaste without parabens, perfume and bad
chemicals
• Do not rinse after tooth brushing, spit out
• Do interdental cleaning like floss, interdental brushes, toothpicks, water flosser
• Do not intake too much sucker and acidic drinks
• Ask your dental professional about your oral hygiene
Find more good advice at tannderne.dk – or ask your dentist
