As they say, every story has a beginning. For gum disease, that story could star a person of any gender, socioeconomic status, marital status, race, origin, or education level. In other words, gum disease knows no boundaries, which means every patient is at risk. There are three main levels of gum disease that we look for, and we’d like to outline those for you below.

First: Prevention
The key to defeating gum disease is increasing prevention, but it’s difficult to convince our patients to floss and brush at least twice a day. It’s difficult to make sure that patients are doing everything they can to remove unwanted bacteria from their mouth!

Second: Early Detection
At the first sign of gum disease, we are dealing with gingivitis. This is a very minor gum infection that we can clear with a simple dental cleaning done in the office by our talented hygienists. After that cleaning, you go back to the first stage of preventing the infection from returning.

Third: Late Detection
For patients who don’t maintain six month cleaning appointments, it is more likely that we won’t discover gum disease until the problem is noticeable to the patient: bleeding gums, loose teeth, etc. At that point, we need to do extensive cleaning and repairing to save your teeth. Surgery is sometimes required.

Your number one goal, when it comes to gum disease, is to prevent the infection from ever occurring. Floss and brush at least twice a day, maintain six month cleanings, and ask us what other strategies you can use to prevent gum disease. Contact us today to set up your next appointment. We can’t wait to see you!