Our Specialist Periodontist practices the full range of periodontics and implant dentistry.
Contact our Periodontist to make an appointment or to discuss our services
Full case assessment, treatment planning and management
Your initial visit with a Periodontist will be a comprehensive assessment of your oral health. This include an in depth measurements and evaluation of your “gum”/periodontal conditions, assessment of your x-rays to check your bone support and further investigations if required. Following the assessment, your periodontist will explain the outcome, taking this together with your preference, formulate a treatment plan which is individually based or specific to you. The fee for periodontal treatment is therefore tailored to your individual needs, the complexity and treatment time required. Your periodontist would be able to provide you with a guide as to the costs of each stage of the treatment. Our aim is to provide the best care which is appropriate to your individual needs.
A referral letter is not required, but if you have one, it would be useful to understand your dental history and your individual needs. Any recent x-rays taken as well as a list of medications you are currently taking would also be helpful to aid us in formulating a treatment plan for you.
Non-surgical and surgical periodontal therapy
Non-surgical therapy such as scaling and root planing is often the initial and the most conservative treatment for periodontal disease. This procedure is more intensive than a routine general cleaning and it involves careful cleaning of the root surfaces below the gumline to remove plaque, calculus (tartar) and bacterial toxins from deep periodontal pockets. Normally, a local anaesthetic is required. This procedure allows the gum tissue to heal and periodontal pockets to shrink. This is sometimes referred to a “deep cleaning”. After a few weeks we reassess the response to this therapy. At this point, many patients do not require any further active treatment, only preventative/maintenance care. If the pockets are deep, surgery may be necessary to help prevent tooth loss. This is because deep pockets provide a greater place for bacteria to live and attack the bone and tissue.
Surgical therapy such as periodontal flap surgery and osseous surgery allows the periodontitist to access hard-to-reach areas under the gum and along the roots where tartar and plaque have accumulated. Surgery may be needed to better remove inflamed tissue and reduce the damage to the bone that has formed around the teeth. Any irregular bone surface will be smoothed out to limit the areas where the bacteria can hide. Eliminating this bacterial stronghold help to reduce pockets and repair damage cause by the progressing disease. This allows the healthy gum tissue to reattach to the repaired bone and tooth.
Regenerative periodontal therapy
In some cases, we are able to restore or regenerate the lost bone and tissue that supports your teeth. We may use bone grafts to rebuild or reshape bone destroyed by periodontal disease, membranes or tissue-stimulating proteins to encourage your body’s natural ability to regenerate bone and tissue. We have many years of experience in carrying out regenerative periodontal therapy to ensure its success.
Periodontal plastic surgery (gum grafts for recession coverage)
Gum recession occurs when the gum line moves away from the crown of the tooth. Healthy gum tissue forms a protective collar around a tooth. When gum recedes, exposing the tooth’s root, sensitivity may result or the tooth may appear longer or unsightly when you smile. Tooth root decay may also develop because the softer root surface decays more readily than the enamel on the tooth’s crown. Gum recession can be reduced by a gum graft procedure (“periodontal plastic surgery”). These procedures help to create more attached gingiva (thick, pink and firm tissue that hugs the teeth), helps to cover exposed roots, enhances the appearance of the gum line during smiling and prevents or treat root sensitivity.
Aesthetic or functional crown lengthening such as gum lifts
Aesthetic crown lengthening or gum lift is a procedure used to correct uneven smile line or improve “gummy” smiles by reshaping the gum line and the underlying bone by exposing more of the natural tooth. This would help to improve your smile.
Functional crown lengthening is a procedure to uncover more of the tooth structure when a tooth is broken or decay extends below the gum line. This procedure allows more tooth structure to be exposed in order to support a crown.
Dental implant therapy
If you are missing a tooth or multiple teeth, you may be suitable for implant therapy. Dental implants are usually titanium screws that are inserted into the jawbone to replace the missing tooth/teeth. Following healing, an implant will fuse to the bone and a crown is attached to mimic a tooth. In cases of several missing teeth or an entire jaw is missing all the teeth, multiple dental implants may be placed to support the entire set of artificial teeth.
Your suitability for implant therapy will be discussed with you during your consultation and usually a 3D Cone Beam CT scan is necessary to determine whether there is adequate bone volume and quality to support a dental implant.
Bone augmentation (grafting) such as block bone graft, GBR and sinus lifts
The key to implant success is the quantity and quality of the bone where the implant is to be placed. Bone grafting may be required for some patients to facilitate dental implant therapy due to the lack of bone volume. This could be because of a history of gum disease (periodontitis), previous trauma, severe bone shrinkage following tooth loss or congenitally missing teeth. The bone grafting procedures are carried out before (staged) or at the time of implant placement such as guided bone regeneration. In the case of the staged bone grafting, the graft is placed (e.g. block bone grafting or sinus augmentation), and the area needs to undergo a healing phase before an implant can be placed. Bone graft materials mainly comes from your own bone, a mineral bone substitute, processed bone from animals or bone from cadavers.
Soft tissue augmentation (grafting) around implants
Soft tissue grafting around the implants may be necessary to improve the functional and cosmetic outcome in certain situations. This is particularly useful in patients with high lip/smile line where the soft tissue grafting would help to mask any contour defect and improve the aesthetics of the tissue surrounding the dental implants. The additional soft tissue (gums/mucosa) can be derived from your own soft tissue, animal derived or from cadavers.
Treatment of peri-implant diseases
Peri-implant diseases are inflammatory conditions affecting the soft (peri-mucositis) and hard tissues (peri-implantitis) around dental implants. Similar to a natural tooth, bacteria may irritate the gum tissue, causing it to become inflamed, damaging the tissue and causing deterioration of the bone supporting the implants. Getting dental implants, however, does not mean that you are going to get peri-implantitis. It is a condition which can be managed but it needs to be caught quickly to prevent the progression of the infection.
Your periodontist is highly experienced in the management of all aspects of the peri-implant diseases including diagnosis, non-surgical and surgical management to halt the progression of the diseases and maintenance of the implants to ensure your dental implants can last a lifetime.
Exposure of teeth
Some teeth (e.g. eye tooth/canine) fail to erupt on their own and remain buried in the jaw bone. This may be due to their positions or angulation. In such cases, the tooth may need to be surgically exposed to allow for its spontaneous eruption or to allow for an orthodontic appliance to be attached onto the tooth so that it can be moved into the correct position orthodontically. Our periodontist will work closely with your orthodontist to plan the exposure procedure.