Periodontal Care in Fort Smith, AR

If you experience bleeding around your teeth, especially when you brush, or your teeth feel loose, and you have red-colored or painful gums, you may be suffering from periodontal or gum disease. This condition results from a persistent infection on and even within your gums.

To treat it, the team at Northside Dental is specially trained to administer numerous treatments in Fort Smith that stop gum infections and may reverse their adverse effects on your dental health.

What Is Gum Disease?

As with most conditions related to an infection, periodontal disease is progressive, growing more problematic over time when you don’t treat it. Dentists generally divide gum disease into three stages.

1. Gingivitis: This early stage of gum disease you may have heard of in oral hygiene commercials. As those ads imply, the condition is related to insufficient home care and neglecting check-ups. Unfortunately, gingivitis may progress without any symptoms save minor gum bleeding or swelling. Dr. Aaron Simpson’s team wants to treat gingivitis before it becomes more serious.
2. Periodontitis: If not treated properly, gingivitis worsens until it becomes periodontitis. This is generally characterized by more swelling or puffy gums that lose their smoothness. This unevenness gives bacteria more places to proliferate. Because bacteria are attracted to your gumline, your gums may recede. The result is deeper gaps around your teeth so that they appear longer. At this point, the infection may impact your jawbone and threaten your teeth.
3. Advanced Periodontitis: At this stage, every symptom grows more severe. You will feel more significant loosening in your teeth, your jawbone may diminish even more, and you may begin to lose teeth. At this stage, Dr. Simpson can help slow its progress, but without significant work, it cannot be reversed.

Why Is Periodontal Disease Dangerous?

Because your mouth is linked to the rest of you in numerous ways, gum infections don’t just affect your teeth and gums. Many studies today show strong links between periodontitis and your general well-being. They have linked gum disease to numerous conditions, including:

• Heart disease
• Diabetes
• Lung disease
• Cancer
• Osteoporosis
• Dementia
• Pregnancy problems

Chronic inflammation resulting from untreated infections can threaten your whole body, which is why Dr. Simpson wants to treat them right away. 

How Do We Treat Gum Disease?

Periodontal dental cleanings work to remove stubborn calculus from your gums and to help prevent damaging accumulations from returning. A member of Dr. Simpson’s team can treat gum disease with a deep cleaning, also called root planing and scaling. The scaling procedure is an intense cleaning with special tools designed to reach the pockets between your gums and teeth, eliminating bacteria and infected tissue so that your gums will have the chance to heal.

Periodontal Disease Prevention and Treatment in Fort Smith, AR

Gingivitis and even early periodontitis are treatable and often reversible conditions that you may find too easy to ignore. But the team at Northside Dental is here to detect and help you return your gums to good health. So we invite you to give us a call and make an appointment for improved gum health today.