Periodontal disease occurs when your gum tissue begins to pull away from your teeth. If left untreated, it can result in the loss of bone tissue from your jawbone, serious gum tissue recession, and the loss of teeth. Treating it involves cleaning out the pockets that develop between your gum tissue and your teeth by means of procedures called root scaling and planing; however, in many cases, merely cleaning out these pockets may not be enough to repair the damage that has been done. If this is your situation, osseous surgery may be for you.
What is Osseous Surgery?
Osseous surgery is a surgical procedure where your dental health provider will make an incision around the tooth. He or she will pull the gum tissue back and thoroughly clean the tooth root from any plaque, tartar, or calculus that may have escaped the root scaling and planing procedures.
If your jawbone or tooth root have been altered because of your gum disease, your dental health professional can smooth and clean these areas. After everything has been cleaned, the gum tissue is placed back next to the tooth. The incision is closed with dissolving sutures, meaning that you will not have to return to have any suturing removed.
How Does Osseous Surgery Help?
Osseous surgery helps repair the damage caused by gum disease in a few ways. First, by removing the buildup of plaque and other material, your tooth is freed from the decay-causing materials that contributed to gum disease in the first place. Second, when the gum is placed up close to the bone at the conclusion of the procedure, it will heal in place and eliminate the pockets that had developed during the course of the gum disease. This is important because these pockets were places where bacteria and plaque could collect, and they are not usually very responsive to brushing and flossing.
What Happens After Osseous Surgery?
We will ask you to come back around 10 to 14 days after so we can check over everything and make sure that you are healing properly. At this time, if you do have any sutures remaining, we can remove them for you.
In some cases, your teeth may appear to be longer after the surgery. This is because the gum tissue has been moved up closer to your teeth. For the same reason, the spaces between your teeth may look slightly larger than they did prior to surgery. If these changes bother you, you can explore other treatment areas that may not have the same results on the appearance of your smile.
Osseous surgery is a procedure that may help you. We are here to answer your questions—whether they involve osseous surgery or any other dental health matter—and we are happy to take the time to sit down with you, please contact our friendly and professional staff today. We can set up an appointment to talk to you about your options and potential treatment plan so that you have all of the information available to you.
