Periodontal Surgery

Pocket Reduction Treatment

The main cause of periodontal disease is bacteria in the form of a sticky plaque that forms on your teeth. However, many factors are risk factors for periodontal disease or influence its progression.

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 are 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 accumulate in the form of calculus (or tartar) and advance under the gum tissue. These deep pockets collect even more bacteria, resulting in further bone and tissue loss. Eventually, too much bone is lost, and the teeth need to be extracted.

Pocket Reduction Treatment (PRT) is usually recommended when the pockets are too deep to clean with daily at-home oral hygiene and a professional care routine. During this procedure, Dr. Bye gently lifts the gum tissue out of the way and removes the disease-causing bacteria before securing the tissue into place. In some cases, irregular surfaces of the damaged bone are smoothed to limit areas where disease-causing bacteria can hide and accumulate.

Reducing pockets and eliminating existing bacteria are important to prevent damage caused by the progression of periodontal disease and to maintain a healthy smile. A combination of daily oral hygiene and professional periodontal maintenance care (with your Family Dentist and your Periodontist) increase your chances of keeping your natural teeth—and decrease your chances of developing serious general health problems associated with periodontal disease.

Guided Tissue Regeneration

Generally, pocket reduction treatment is used to treat and arrest chronic periodontal disease. Although this is still an effective treatment modality, new and more sophisticated procedures, known as Guided tissue Regeneration Procedures are used routinely today to replace the previously lost gum and bone tissue.

Most techniques utilize membranes, which are inserted over the bone defects. The body generally re-absorbs these membranes after adequate healing has taken place. Other regenerative procedures involve the use of bioactive gels. Usually, a bone graft material is used in combination with the barrier or gel to attain the best, and most predictable result.

Functional Crown Lengthening

Crown lengthening (or crown exposure) is required when your tooth needs a new crown or other restoration and the edge of that restoration is deep below the gum tissue. The edge or margin of the restoration is also usually too close to the bone or below the level of the adjacent bone.

The procedure involves adjusting the levels of the gum tissue and bone around the tooth in question, to create a new gum-to-tooth relationship. This allows your Dentist to place an accurate restoration (usually a crown) that properly fits the tooth and will not cause bone loss.

After crown lengthening, we will provide enough tooth structure so the new restoration will not come loose in the future. You will also be more able to clean the edge of the restoration when you brush and floss to prevent decay and gum disease.

When the procedure is completed, sutures are placed to help secure the new gum-to-tooth relationship. You will need to be seen in approximately two weeks to remove the sutures and evaluate your healing. A new crown can be fabricated between 4 to 8 weeks after functional crown lengthening, depending on the tooth.