Dental Services

Gum Treatments

Verity Hughes is on hand to clean teeth and gums, removing calculus, stains and plaque from teeth to maintain a healthy, brighter smile. As a hygienist one of her many roles is to educate you on how to look after your teeth and gums to maintain bone levels to ensure that you keep your teeth for as long as possible.

A shocking statistic from the National Adult Dental Health Survey found that 54% of adults aged over 16 had moderate signs of gum (periodontal) disease. We ensure that we actively search for gum disease and treat it so it does NOT go by undiagnosed and untreated.

If plaque and tartar is allowed to build up, the bacteria within it can make your gums sore and infected; they will look red and puffy, and will probably bleed when you brush your teeth.

The gum will then start to become detached from the tooth, forming ‘pockets’ in which more plaque can gather – and bone supporting the tooth will slowly be lost. Because this process is usually painless, it can become very bad without you noticing. If left unchecked and untreated, gum disease will lead to the loss of the teeth.

Cleaning the sides of the tooth is the main way of helping to halt gum disease. It involves ‘deep’ scaling, to clean parts of the teeth below the gum line which cannot be reached with a toothbrush. Root planing cleans out the pockets and removes plaque and tartar from the root surface. This is often done under local anaesthetic and your mouth might be treated in sections if particularly bad. After a tooth has been root planed, the pockets should shrink, making the gum sit closer to the tooth.

Patients are taught how to practice good oral hygiene. Smoking is a main cause of gum disease and we see smoking cessation as a priority for maintaining good oral and general health.