Periodontal Care in Mankato, MN

Gum diseases are often ignored and left to die down by themselves. This can be quite a dangerous practice, as gum diseases can significantly affect your oral health. Periodontitis, one of the most devastating gum diseases, is known to have several serious symptoms that not only affect the health of your mouth but your body as a whole. Hence, we recommend getting periodontal therapy done to ensure your oral health doesn’t deviate due to gum disease.

What are the symptoms of periodontitis?

• Bleeding gums
• Swollen and inflamed gum tissues
• Chronic bad breath
• Discharge of pus from the gums
• The decay of soft tissues
• Loosening of gums from the tooth roots
• Deeper gum pockets
• Receding gum line
• Bone deterioration

What causes gum disease?

Gum disease is mainly caused due to the microbes deposited on the teeth in the form of tartar deposits. Tartar contains numerous harmful bacteria that release toxins when they feed on the food debris in the mouth. These toxins can decay the soft gum tissues and erode the enamel, leading to gum diseases and cavities. In the initial stage, the condition will have mild symptoms, such as swollen gums, bleeding, redness, etc. It is called gingivitis. If it advances to a more severe form, it can have drastic symptoms and is called periodontitis.

How is periodontitis treated?

Since the tartar deposits near the gum line and under the gum tissues are the primary cause behind gum disease, we will remove them by ultrasonic scaling. The tooth roots will also be cleaned to get rid of the tartar deposits and food debris that may have been deposited in the gum pockets. Next, the decayed soft tissues will be removed using laser therapy, where a highly powerful laser will be used to vaporize the gums and seal the wound underneath instantaneously.

Dr. Vose will use medication to halt the spread of the infection. It may be in the form of oral pills or surface applicants placed in the deep gum pockets. If the volume of gum tissues is low and has receded below the ideal gum line, we will conduct a gum graft. In this procedure, we will extract healthy tissues from a different part of the mouth and graft them meticulously to the receded area. After a healing period of a few weeks, the newly grafted tissues will fuse with the existing tissues, thus increasing the volume of the gums.

Please request an appointment online or call us at 507-387-2255 and a member of our staff will be happy to help you.