Periodontal Treatment Specialist

What is periodontal disease?

Periodontal disease refers to any infections that affect the structures that hold your teeth in place, including your gums, your periodontal ligament, and your alveolar bone.

When people talk about periodontal disease, they’re most often referencing gum disease. Some types of gum disease for which Dr. Jodry offers periodontal treatments include:

• Gingivitis
• Peri-implant mucositis
• Peri-implantitis, and periodontal disease
• Aggressive periodontitis
• Chronic periodontitis
• Necrotizing periodontal disease

Gum diseases such as these develop when you allow plaque, a sticky bacteria, to build up on your teeth and harden. If you allow gum disease to progress unchecked, it eventually destroys your gums and teeth.

How does periodontal treatment work?

Periodontal treatment works in phases, which Dr. Jodry adjusts according to your periodontal health. If you’re anxious about any in-office treatments, Dr. Jodry can provide you with sedation to relax you and calm your nerves.

Phase one

During the first phase of treatment, Dr. Jodry focuses on getting your infection under control by identifying the source of your periodontal disease and addressing it. Controlling your infection involves a concerted effort on your part, as well as Dr. Jodry’s. 

For your part, Dr. Jodry explains the changes that you need to make to be successful, such as improving your oral hygiene or smoking cessation.

To support you, Dr. Jodry offers non-surgical treatments such as scaling and root planing. Scaling and root planing is a procedure in which she meticulously removes plaque and tartar from deep periodontal pockets and smooths your tooth roots to eliminate bacterial toxins.

Sometimes, Dr. Jodry follows scaling and root planing with add-on therapy, such as a round of antibiotics. 

Phase two

If non-surgical treatments prove insufficient, or your infection is too deep to clean, Dr. Jodry may suggest you move to the second phase of treatment, which is the surgical phase. To surgically treat periodontal disease, she refers you to a periodontist who specializes in gum graft surgery.

During gum graft surgery, your skilled oral surgeon takes healthy gum tissue from somewhere like the roof of your mouth and grafts it where your gum line has receded due to gingivitis. The goal of surgery is to cover exposed tooth roots and/or develop new gum tissue.

Gum graft surgery helps prevent further gum line recession, reduces tooth sensitivity, protects you from bone loss and tooth decay, and enhances your smile.

As a last resort, Dr. Jodry can also extract your damaged teeth, and replace them with dental implant restorations, a bridge, or dentures.

Phase three

The third phase of periodontal treatment is maintenance. Maintenance is all about making sure that your periodontal disease doesn’t come back by observing good oral hygiene habits. When you finish your periodontal treatments, Dr. Jodry discusses oral hygiene in detail with you to make sure that you know what you need to do to keep your teeth healthy.

She also schedules you for a three-month check-up.

Periodontal health is essential to your overall health, as untreated periodontal disease is associated with an increased risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and respiratory illnesses. For advanced periodontal treatments, call Kathryn Jodry, DDS, or request an appointment online today.