Overcome Gum Disease with Non-Surgical Scaling and Root Planing (SRP)
Although you may not realize it, oral hygiene is vital in keeping your gums free from infections. Without proper oral care, you’ll likely develop periodontal disease, which damages your gums and causes tooth loss.
Fortunately, if you develop gum disease, even past the mild stage, you are not entirely out of options. Eckland Family Dental offers scaling and root planing (SRP) to overcome gum disease. Also known as deep teeth cleaning, SRP is non-surgical yet effective in halting the progression of gum disease.
How gum disease develops
Gum disease occurs when food debris, saliva, and harmful bacteria mix to form a sticky, colorless film in your mouth (dental plaque). The bacteria in the dental plaque secrete toxins that irritate your gums, causing redness, swelling, and tenderness.
When you fail to treat the mild form of gum disease (gingivitis), plaque calcifies into tartar, which further invites more bacteria into the mouth. These harmful bacteria attack your gums, causing deep pockets to form between the teeth and gums. These periodontal pockets are deep and inaccessible with your dental floss or toothbrush—you need a dentist to clean and remove harmful deposits from these pockets.
What is deep dental cleaning?
It’s gum disease treatment where the dentist uses special skills and tools to “scale away” bacteria toxins, dental calculus, and other deposits from the surface of your teeth and below the gum line. After scaling, the dentist smoothes out the tooth roots through root planing to promote healing by encouraging healthy attachment of the gums to the teeth.
What can I expect from the deep cleaning procedure?
The treatment takes two or more visits, depending on the severity of your infection. Typically, we usually treat one half of the mouth (sometimes, one quadrant) during each visit to ensure you can still use the other side of the mouth between treatments.
Before treatment, we’ll anesthetize your gums to minimize discomfort during the procedure. We always try to be as gentle as possible to optimize your comfort. Deep cleaning starts with scaling to remove all the harmful deposits before polishing the roots to promote healing.
After treatment, you will experience mild tenderness, bruising, and bleeding. This shouldn’t worry you because it’s expected and will only last a few days. However, we’ll give you medications and home remedies to manage discomfort and avoid health complications.
We’ll schedule follow-up appointments with you to monitor the healing of your gums. These appointments allow us to determine if the remedy is adequate or if you may need further advanced treatments.
Gum disease treatment near me
Do you suspect gum disease? It's best to speak to Eckland Family Dental right away. Remember, the more you delay treatment, the more difficult your disease will be to treat. Start gum disease treatment now by calling our offices in Everett at (425) 249-3830 or Redmond at (425) 448-6339, WA.