Laser treatment

The key to healthy gums is effective cleaning of the teeth every day. Those minutes you spend by the sink can really be the difference. We know everyone brushes their teeth somehow, but taking the time to clean every surface takes time and skill, and much of our work is focused on coaching our patients on how to achieve this day in, day out.

The problem with this is that once gum disease has taken hold, the attachment of the gum to the tooth breaks down, and you are left with pockets where the germs can live beyond the reach of your toothbrush. People often ask if mouthwash can sort this out, but despite what the adverts tell you, dental plaque (the community of germs that lives in your mouth) is a very tight-nit community that sticks together and resists all the ebb and flow of mouthwash, unless you get bristles in to break it up. Some of these pockets can be up to 10 or more millimetres in depth, and nothing is disturbing those boys unless you come and see us and get a professional clean. But, we’re not open Sundays and you need to get clean EVERY day!

So, what to do? Well, treatment of periodontal disease has become a lot more effective with the advent of lasers. Back in the day, surgery was required to eliminate those pockets, and nobody likes surgery except surgeons. Now, here at Ferring Dental Practice our standard treatment for getting those pockets back to manageable levels is to get everything thoroughly clean and then treat the gum and the tooth with a special wavelength of laser to allow the gum to reattach to the side of the tooth – thus eliminating the pocket and allowing you to maintain things with your newly discovered oral hygiene skills. “This treatment is new, but the research evidence for its effectiveness and longevity grows all the time, and I have to say after over 35 years of interest in periodontal disease I have never seen clinical outcomes as consistently good as I am seeing now with the laser.” – Principal Dentist, Peter Saner.

Laser treatment can be the solution for anyone with bone loss and pocketing, where the gums are not securely attached to the teeth at a level where you can maintain them.

It depends on how many teeth are remaining and are affected by the disease. We do a full assessment before treatment and will advise on how long you should expect to be in the practice.

As always, we will give you a full quotation before we start treatment, but, depending on the number of teeth involved, the maximum investment is in the region of £2500; which, when you consider it, could give you the chance to keep your natural teeth, rather than having implants or dentures, it’s a worthwhile investment.