Periodontal Gum Disease Detection & Prevention: Dental Care & Oral Hygiene

Video Transcript

Hi my name is Carol and I am a registered dental hygienist and I am speaking on behalf of Expert Village.com and in this segment we will be talking about periodontal disease. There are some signs and symptoms of periodontal disease: it first starts off as gingivitis which is swollen gums that bleed easily upon brushing or flossing. Gingivitis is reversible with proper brushing and flossing because it only affects the gum tissue. Gingivitis is caused by plaque which is the bi-product of food that you eat. If that plaque stays long enough and is not brushed away, and you don’t go in regularly for your regular dental visit, then the gingivitis turns into periodontal disease -- the infection of the teeth, gums and the supporting structures around the teeth.

What happens in early periodontal disease is you actually get some bone loss, In some of these areas that you’ll notice where the gum actually detaches from the tooth and it goes down about it where you can see the roots of the teeth. The same as in gingivitis you will still have the inflammation and infection in these areas and the part begins to deteriorate the bone if it goes on further into moderate periodontal disease where you begin to get pocketing around the roots in the teeth. At this point you can’t get a toothbrush bristle for flossing down in those deep pockets. What happens is that bacteria begins to accumulate in those areas and cause more problems. It is very important to come in regularly for your regular dental visit so that they can detect any periodontal issues and any treatment necessary to clear up this.

In severe cases of periodontal disease, the teeth actually become mobile and in some instances, they will become loose and fall out. In these areas, there is severe pocketing of where the bone has deteriorated way and in some cases, there will even be puss in the pockets. So that is why it is important to go in regularly to visit your dental hygienist once a year usually and sometimes more in some cases. What the dental hygienist or dentist will be doing is something called a periodontal evaluation where they get a periodontal probe which measures in millimeters on the end of how deep the pockets are. Normal healthy pocket depth is 1 to 3 millimeters deep that you can thoroughly clean out down to that deep with a toothbrush and floss. Fours indicate gingivitis and five and above indicates the bone loss. What the hygienist does at the time is they go around each area of the tooth; three areas on the outside of the tooth and 3 areas on the inside of the tooth to let us know where the bone support is and how healthy their gums are. If the hygienist and dentist determine that you do have periodontal disease, they will discuss with you different treatment options at that time as far as cleanings go because a regular cleaning only goes down to about 3 millimeters.

At the time whenever patients have periodontal disease, that is when they may discuss scaling and root planning with the patient and what that involves is anesthesia to numb the gums so that it is more comfortable for the patient and that allows the hygienist to go down to the very base of the pockets and remove the necrotic or dead tissue and the bacterial and thoroughly clean out those areas. Even though we can’t get bone to grow back, we can get tissue to grow back to heal around the root surfaces to hopefully save the attachment and save the teeth and keep them firmly supported. At that point, it is very important for patients to come in for their regular check-up so possibly 3 or 4 months to make sure that the periodontal bacteria does not come back. Once those tissues are compromised, that bacteria can always come back and cause more problems.

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