Periodontal Surgery

 

Where necessary, we have incorporated surgical regenerative treatments of the periodontium (gums) including both bone and soft tissue regeneration.

The specific services we offer include connective tissue grafting and bone grafting. 

Connective tissue grafting is used to replace soft tissue that has been scrubbed away by overly aggressive brushing or aging.  In this procedure tissue is taken from the undersurface of the palatal tissue (roof of the mouth) via tiny incisions, and is used to not only restore missing thick keratinized gum tissue, but also used to cover exposed roots of the teeth.  A surgical splint is used to cover the palate during healing.

 
Bone grafting is the replacement or augmentation of the bone around the teeth.

Bone grafting is performed to reverse the bone loss / destruction caused by periodontal disease, trauma, or ill fitting removable dentures. It is also used to augment bone to permit implant placement, such as augmenting bone in the sinus area for implant placement, or augmenting bone to enhance the fit and comfort of removable prostheses, or to enhance esthetics of a missing tooth site in the smile zone. When one loses a tooth, as in an extraction, the surrounding bone collapses. To preserve this bone for future implant placement or for esthetics, a bone graft is used.

We use allografts from synthetic bone (no cadaver bone is ever used without your prior knowledge).  In conjunction with bone grafting, membranes are often used to help stabilize the bone graft as well as displace the gum tissue from invading the healing bone graft. Gum tissue grows at a much faster rate than bone, therefore, membranes are used to prevent gum tissue from growing in and displacing the bone graft before it matures.