Why Have Lasers Treat Your Gum Disease?

By Author: Dan Rodda
Total Articles: 54
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If you didn’t already know, “scaling and root planing” is the typical way to treat gum disease. It’s a deep cleaning that removes infected tissue with a scalpel or similar tools. That said, there’s a newer way you could fix your infection. Laser therapy offers unique benefits as a treatment for gum disease. If you’d like to know more, our office will gladly assist. Here are four major perks to having a dental laser treat your gum disease.

Less Invasive Work
As it happens, laser therapy for your gums is less invasive. It doesn’t involve as much pain or bleeding as older treatment methods.

You see, “scaling and root planing” can slice into gum tissue. That means the option sometimes leads to aches, stitches, and bleeding. In contrast, though, laser therapy is fairly gentle. Since it doesn’t cut into your gums, it offers a smaller risk of sensitivity and blood. Its laser even cauterizes the tissue so that you won’t bleed. Given these facts, many patients view it as a smoother way to treat their infection.

Care is More Precise
Unlike other approaches, laser therapy is pretty ...
... precise. It only fixes infected gum tissue and leaves the healthy kind alone.

Remember, “scaling and root planing” uses traditional tools. Such things can remove healthy bits of your gums by mistake. Meanwhile, a dental laser allows the dentist only to remove infected tissue. It thus preserves more of your gum structure than older methods. Better yet, it promotes new tissue growth to compensate for what’s lost.

You’ll Recover Quickly
Overall, laser gum disease treatment prompts a faster recovery. It lets your mouth heal more quickly from the treatment process.

With older gum disease procedures, the mouth can remain sore for a while. It often takes 5-7 days to heal from standard scaling and root planing. In contrast, laser therapy both sanitizes and cauterizes as it works. The method irritates your gums less, greatly reducing your recovery time. Many patients are fully healed in just two days.

Few (if any) Diet Restrictions
Compared to other choices, laser therapy involves fewer diet restrictions. The patient won’t need to eat much (if any) soft food after treatment.

As stated before, regular gum disease procedures cause aches over a week. They usually require a soft diet for a few weeks once done. However, things are different with laser therapy; it only suggests a soft diet for a few days at most. In fact, most patients feel well enough to eat as usual right after treatment.

Given the perks above, you should consider lasers for your gum disease. Talk to your local dentist to see how the option would enhance your smile!