Scaling & Root Planning

Con­trol­ling Gum Dis­ease with Scal­ing & Root Planing

If plaque and tar­tar accu­mu­late and are left on the teeth, they pro­vide the right con­di­tions for harm­ful bac­te­ria to thrive. The tar­tar or cal­cu­lus formed under the gums cause irri­ta­tion. Prod­ucts from the harm­ful bac­te­ria on the tar­tar under the gums, in com­bi­na­tion with the body’s immune sys­tem response can lead to either gum inflam­ma­tion with­out loss of gum attach­ment or bone loss ( called Gin­givi­tis ) or gum inflam­ma­tion with loss of gum attach­ment and bone loss ( called Peri­odon­ti­tis ). Not all areas with gum inflam­ma­tion have gum attach­ment or bone loss, how­ever the longer the tar­tar is under the gums, the greater the risk of future gum attach­ment loss and bone loss.

Peri­odon­tal dis­ease can break down the sup­port (bone) struc­tures of the teeth, so that even­tu­ally, they will become loose. Although the dam­age caused by peri­odon­tal dis­ease is irre­versible, if caught in time, its pro­gres­sion can be stopped and prevented.

To stop peri­odon­tal dis­ease from pro­gress­ing, our peri­odon­tists in Wood­bridge may per­form a deep teeth clean­ing (tech­ni­cally called Scal­ing & Root Plan­ning) to rid the mouth of harm­ful bac­te­ria and pro­vide the nec­es­sary con­di­tions for healing.

Scal­ing & Root Plan­ning: The Procedure

Scal­ing is the process of remov­ing den­tal tar­tar and plaque from the sur­faces of the teeth and gum­line. Root plan­ing is the process of smooth­ing the root sur­faces and remov­ing any infected tooth struc­ture to help the gums tis­sues heal and reat­tach to the tooth root. The gums are often numbed for the scal­ing and root plan­ning pro­ce­dure. One of our peri­odon­tists may also rec­om­mend a mouth wash or anti-microbial agent to help con­trol the growth of bac­te­ria that cause peri­odon­tal dis­ease. In some cases, an antibi­otic may be placed in the peri­odon­tal pock­ets after scal­ing and plan­ning. This treat­ment may be done to con­trol infec­tion and to encour­age nor­mal healing.