What Is Laser Therapy for Periodontal Disease?
Lasers are incredibly effective when working with the gums. When cleaning periodontal pockets, the laser vaporizes infected tissue, disinfecting the area and triggering tissue re-growth at the same time. As the laser energy penetrates the gum tissue, it instantly seals blood vessels and nerve endings. This dramatically reduces bleeding and post-procedure pain, and it encourages faster healing. Here’s where we use the laser for periodontal disease:
- Root planning and scaling
- Removal of bacteria and infected tissue from periodontal pockets
- Surgical reshaping of the gums to reduce periodontal pockets
- To enhance reattachment of the gums back to the tooth roo
When Is Laser Therapy Considered Necessary for Periodontal Disease?
At Gonzalez Dental Care, we view lasers as an awesome tool to improve our treatment of periodontal disease. It’s not necessarily a necessity at a point in the process, but lasers simply provide better outcomes.
When a patient has advanced gum disease, clinically known as stage 4 periodontitis, he or she will have gingival pockets around the teeth that are deeper than 7 millimeters. When clearing out these pockets, the laser energy works faster, kills the bacteria present, and isn’t painful. It’s a better solution than the former methods of scraping out these pockets with dental tools.
When a patient has advanced gum disease, clinically known as stage 4 periodontitis, he or she will have gingival pockets around the teeth that are deeper than 7 millimeters. When clearing out these pockets, the laser energy works faster, kills the bacteria present, and isn’t painful. It’s a better solution than the former methods of scraping out these pockets with dental tools.
What Are the Benefits of Laser Therapy for Periodontal Disease?
Dr. Gonzalez has always believed in staying at the forefront of dental technology and incorporating lasers into her practice is in line with that philosophy. These are some of the benefits for our patients:
- Soft tissue work where diseased tissue is removed often doesn’t require sutures.
- Certain procedures don’t require anesthesia.
- Lasers instantly sterilize the treatment areas.
- Damage to surrounding tissue is minimized.
- Wounds heal faster.
- Tissue regenerates more efficiently.
- Procedures can be done more quickly.
Is Periodontal Laser Therapy Covered by Insurance?
While dental insurance coverage varies widely, most dental plans cover periodontal treatment. After all, not treating gum disease will lead to a host of much more involved procedures down the road. Laser gum treatment is just a tool used for these treatments and is covered.
Is Laser Gum Treatment Painful?
Placing the power of laser energy into the mouth can scare some patients. They think their use must be very painful. Actually, the opposite is true. Because the laser wavelengths are absorbable by water and hemoglobin, the laser energy can instantly vaporize infected gum tissue without the need for a scalpel. And because the energy instantly coagulates the blood vessels and seals nerve endings, there is dramatically less pain and usually the incisions don’t require sutures. This makes for far easier recovery when dealing with soft tissue procedures such as gum contouring or root planing.
How is Platelet-Rich Fibrin Used in Laser Gum Therapy?
At Gonzalez, we use platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) for many of our laser gum treatments. Platelet-rich fibrin — made after placing a blood sample in a centrifuge and separating out concentrated platelets, white blood cells, and various growth factors — accelerates recovery and healing when we need to remove diseased gum tissue and when we need to perform gum grafting. The combination of concentrated PRF created from the patient’s own blood has many benefits in the healing process.
What are the risks of laser dentistry?
There are procedural risks with any medical procedure. But for our uses at Gonzalez Dental Care, lasers actually lower the risk. This is primarily because of the risk of infection. Conventional dental tools must be sterilized after each use to control the possibility of infection. Medical lasers, because they instantly sterilize the soft or hard tissue they come into contact with, don’t present the same risks. Also, the accuracy of lasers makes for more precise treatments.
Ready to take the next step? Contact us
Find out more about this or any of our other procedures and what is the best course of periodontal treatment for you by scheduling a patient consultation now. We promise our full attention and gentle, effective dental care at our Pembroke Pines dentist office.
