Treating gum disease can be accomplished in a number of ways, and whether it'll be an easy or difficult task depends on several things, beginning with one's health. There are a variety of treatments for gum disease depending on its severity, your response to earlier treatments, and your overall health. Now, the best way to make sure that your dental health is well-maintained, is to take care of your gums through regular visits to your local dentist. There are two main ways your dentist will approach gum disease prevention-nonsurgical and surgical treatments. Scaling and root planing is essentially a treatment where your dentist applies a local anesthetic, and performs a deep cleaning. This scrubs away tartar from above and below the gum line, and smooths out any rough spots on your teeth. The smoothing process will usually get rid of unhealthy bacteria, and provide a nice tidy surface for the gums to get nice and cosy with their perennial neighbors, the teeth. Your dentist will decide to perform a root planing and scaling procedure if there are deposits of plaque and calculus below your gum line which need to be removed.

When gum disease has progressed well beyond the point where non-surgical methods can help, surgical treatments may be in your near future. One surgery is a pocket reduction/flap surgery, in which the gums are pulled back from the teeth, and the problem pockets of tartar removed. Another surgical treatment is bone grafts, which involves pieces of human bone or synthetic bone inserted in the jawbone to replace those destroyed by gum disease. Lastly, there is bone surgery, where your dentist removes shallow divots caused by advanced bone loss, making it harder for bacteria to grow. Needless to say, surgical methods are not the first choice unless the health of the patient just doesn't sit well with nonsurgical methods, aside from being inconvenient. Your dentist will consult with you whether a surgical option will be most suited for your particular situation.

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