Water Fluoridation
Water fluoridation is the topping up of the levels of naturally occurring fluoride in the water to strengthen teeth against tooth decay. Fluorides are minerals found very commonly in the earth’s crust and in all water supplies. American scientists in the 1930s found that people living in towns with higher levels of fluoride in the water experienced less tooth decay than people living in areas with much lower levels of fluoride. Community water fluoridation began in America in 1945 and spread rapidly once its effectiveness against tooth decay became obvious.
Water Picks
Water irrigations devices – those small instruments the dentist uses to spray a high-powered stream of water in your mouth, can be useful in cleaning trapped debris in between your teeth.
But these kinds of devices, including so-called ‘water picks’, should never be used as a substitute for tooth brushing and flossing.
Health Products
Visit any pharmacy or the health and beauty section of a supermarket today, and you are faced with a large, and many say confusing, array of over-the-counter remedies and devices designed to help you tend to your hygiene and health care needs.
There are many high-quality products on the market today. There also are many products of questionable value. As one dental professional puts it, ‘Do they put ginkgo biloba in the new natural toothpastes so patients will remember to brush their teeth?’
Scaling and Root Planing
Some cases of acute periodontal (gum) disease that do not respond to more conventional treatment and self-care such as flossing may require a special kind of cleaning called scaling and root planing.
The procedure begins with administration of a local anaesthetic to reduce any discomfort. Then, a small instrument called a ‘scaler’, or an ultrasonic cleaner, is used to clean beneath your gum line to remove plaque and tartar.
The root surfaces on the tooth are then planed and smoothed. This lets the gum tissue heal and reattach itself to the tooth.
Maxillofacial Surgery
Maxillofacial surgery is a branch of dentistry that deals with surgical procedures of the head and neck, including the mouth and tooth structures.
Flap Surgery
Your bone and gum tissue should fit snugly around your teeth like a turtleneck. When you have periodontal disease, this supporting tissue and bone is destroyed, forming pockets around the teeth. Over time, these pockets become deeper, providing a larger space for bacteria to thrive and wreak havoc.
As bacteria accumulate and advance under the gum tissue in these deep pockets, additional bone and tissue loss follow. Eventually, if too much bone is lost, the teeth will need to be extracted.
Extraction
In most cases, a tooth may need to be pulled when other, less radical procedures such as amalgams or restoration make it impossible or imprudent to save your original tooth.
Advanced anaesthetic techniques today greatly minimize discomfort associated with a tooth extraction. First, the area surrounding the tooth is numbed to lessen any discomfort. After the extraction, you are given a regimen to follow to ensure that no infection occurs and your gum tissues heal properly. In most cases, a small amount of bleeding is normal.
Cosmetic Surgery
In addition to procedures to treat periodontal disease, many periodontists also perform Cosmetic Dentistry to enhance your smile. Often, patients who pursue Cosmetic Dentistry notice improved function as well. Cosmetic Dentistry include:
- Crown lengthening
- Soft tissue grafts
- Ridge augmentation
Root Canal (Endodontic Therapy)
Root canal therapy has saved more teeth than you can imagine! Before root canal therapy came along, if you had a tooth with a diseased nerve, chances are you would lose that tooth.
Deep beneath each tooth’s outer shell is an area of soft tissue called the pulp, which carries the tooth’s nerves, veins, arteries and lymph vessels. Root canals are very small, thin divisions that branch off from the top pulp chamber down to the tip of the root. A tooth has between one and four root canals.