Periodontal Therapy

During your dental visit, the dentist will use an instrument to measure the pockets of space around your teeth, between the gums and teeth. The depth of gum pockets usually determines if you need periodontal therapy or dental deep cleaning.

According to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), your gum pockets should be less than 3 millimeters deep. If your gum pockets are deeper than 5 millimeters, you are said to be suffering from gum disease or periodontitis.

Your doctor will recommend periodontal therapy to treat gum disease or periodontitis. However, periodontal therapy is a broad term that encapsulates a wide range of treatments, from dental cleaning to periodontal surgery. At the initial stages, your dentist will recommend periodontal deep cleaning with scaling and root planing.

Periodontal therapy is necessary to catch and stop gum disease before it worsens, which would necessitate surgery. If periodontitis advances, it will eventually lead to severe gum infections and gum recession, which may also lead to bone loss, tooth loss, and more.

• Prophylaxis Dental Cleaning: During prophylaxis dental cleaning (otherwise called routine teeth cleaning), the dentist will use periodontal scaling to remove all the accumulated plaque and tartar from your teeth. At this stage, the bacterial infection can be removed on the surface level since there is no gum recession.
• Periodontal Scaling & Root Planing: You’ll need a periodontal scaling and root planing if the bacterial infection has deepened your gum pockets, leading to gum recession. Also known as periodontal deep cleaning, scaling and root planing consists of the dentist removing all the accumulated plaque and tartar, and securing the gum tissues around the tooth.
• Gross Debriment: Gross debriment is a procedure used to examine your teeth to determine if you need a periodontal scaling and root planing, generally done if you haven’t had a dental checkup for over a year.

Periodontal deep cleaning is a non-surgical procedure used to treat gum disease and periodontitis in its early stages. Dental deep cleaning, also called scaling and root planing, is usually done under local anesthesia, so you don’t feel anything.

The following are the two steps involved in periodontal deep cleaning.

• Scaling: During periodontal scaling, the dentist removes the plaque and tartar from your teeth’s surface and from the pockets between your teeth and gums. The dentist may perform scaling with a scaler or an electriceor ultrasonic instrument.
• Root Planing: During root planing, the dentist will use a scaling device to remove the accumulated plaque and tartar from your teeth and gum pockets. Following that, they will clean the roots of the tooth, eliminating all the bacteria from the gum pockets. Once the gum disease is treated, the dentist will secure the gum tissues around the loose tooth, closing the gum pockets and treating receding gums.