How Is Periodontitis/Gum Disease Treated?

If you are at all worried that you may have gum disease or periodontal disease, the first port of call should be your dentist who can advise you on whether or not you have gum/periodontal disease, the extent of the same and will be happy to provide you with advice on how best to treat it.

Most client's that I deal with find that they can control their periodontal/gum disease through good oral hygiene techniques combined with regular visits to their dentist for further perio treatment which can involve deep cleaning and scaling with special dental tools.

There are specialist dentists around the UK who deal specifically with periodontal disease and the treatment of the same.  A search of the web will reveal a periodontist close to your home.  You can ask your dentist about a referral.

Dentists are a under a duty to detect gum disease and in order to do this the most basic test is to take an annual BPE (Basic Periodontal Examination) or CPITN score along with x-rays in order to detect if periodontal disease is developing.  This involves the dentist poking a small probe down between the teeth and the gum to measure what it called a "pocket depth" in order to measure attachment loss.

Watch this US dentist talk about how periodontal disease is treated.  Treatment is the same in the UK.