The point of surgery is to eliminate the “houses” where bad bacteria live—pockets with depths of more than 5 millimeters. At this depth, the base of the pockets lack oxygen, which helps bacteria and toxins thrive. The point of surgery is to smooth out defects in the bone, so that when the gums are repositioned at a lower level on the tooth, the pocket depth is reduced, meaning the whole area can become oxygenated and inhospitable to bacteria.
We offer the most advanced surgical options for periodontal disease that has not responded to treatment.
Flap Surgery/Pocket Reduction Surgery
We make tiny incisions in your gums. Gums are then gently pulled back to expose the roots of teeth. This makes it possible for us to offer deeper scaling and planing and more effectively remove tartar and smooth the bone surfaces that have been damaged by gum disease. Your gums are put back into place and sewed up tightly around your tooth, reducing pocket size and areas where bacteria can live and grow.
Bone and Tissue Grafts
In some cases, we can help regenerate bone or gum tissue lost to periodontitis using already harvested natural or synthetic bone to replace what’s been lost. Guided-tissue regeneration is a technique that is sometimes used with bone grafting. We insert a dissolving membrane between bone and gum to prevent gum tissue from filling in the area before the lost bone to has a chance to regrow. Sometimes we use growth factors that “jumpstart” this guided bone regeneration process. When gum tissue has been lost, we can cover exposed tooth roots with synthetic or natural soft tissue grafts.