Periodontal Surgery

Your bone and gum tissue should fit snugly around your teeth like a turtleneck around your neck. When you have periodontal disease, this supporting tissue and bone is destroyed, forming "pockets" around the teeth.

Over time, these pockets become deeper, providing a larger space for bacteria to live.  As bacteria develop around the teeth, they can accumulate and advance deeper under the gum tissue. These deep pockets collect even more bacteria, resulting in further bone and tissue loss. If too much bone is lost the teeth need to be extracted or may fall out.

Periodontal surgery may be recommended because you have pockets that are too deep to clean with daily home care and professional cleanings. Shallower pockets and a combination of daily oral hygiene and professional maintenance care increase your chances of keeping your natural teeth and decreases your chances of serious health problems associated with periodontal disease.

During this procedure, we will fold back the gum tissue and remove the disease-causing bacteria before securing the tissue into place with sutures. In some cases, irregular surfaces of the damaged bone are smoothed to limit areas where disease-causing bacteria can hide. This allows the gum tissue to better reattach to healthy bone and roots.