Delivering Gentle Gum Care in Tulsa
Healthy Gums Mean a Healthy You
Do you have bleeding gums? Loose teeth? Are your gums puffy, swollen or red?
If so, you may have gum disease. More specifically, gingivitis. Gingivitis is the first stage of gum disease and is a reaction to the plaque bacteria in and around your gums. It can cause the gum tissue to pull away from the tooth root, creating “pockets” around your tooth and tooth root. These pockets are ideal hiding places for bacteria that are difficult to remove with just brushing and flossing.
For more information on flossing, please download our pdf.
Left untreated, gingivitis progresses to periodontitis, a more serious and destructive level of gum disease. With periodontitis, you can experience:
- Tooth loss
- Infections and/or abscesses
- Bacterial infections
- Ulceration of the gums
Sometimes you can have gingivitis without any symptoms; that’s why regular dental hygiene visits are so important. It gives us the chance to stop any gum disease early, before it progresses to dangerous stages.
If you thought tooth loss was scary, now there’s even more compelling reasons to treat gum disease early. Recent studies have linked the bacteria associated with gum disease to an increase risk of:
- Heart attack
- Stroke
- Cancer (including pancreatic cancer)
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Difficulty controlling blood sugar in diabetics.
- Pre-term birth
- Low birth weight babies
- And many more serious health risks.
For more information on periodontal disease, please download our pdf
Gentle Gum Treatment
With modern dental technology and techniques, the periodontal therapy offered at the South Tulsa dental practice of Dr. Rick Canady is now a gentle, painless treatment that restores your gums to health and helps protect you against serious health risks.
We use the Cavitron and the Piezo Scaler – both soft tissue lasers – in the treatment of gum disease. Both lasers use high frequency ultrasonic waves to clean the teeth and deliver gentle gum treatment. They remove tartar above and below the gum line, and promote healing of the gums and reattachment to the tooth root. These lasers provide treatment that is so gentle that we usually don’t need to use an anesthetic. These modern dental tools offer safe, effective and comfortable alternatives to traditional gum cleaning methods.
