What would warrant having gum surgery be absolutely necessary?

Answer 1

Normally the gum around a tooth has a small pocket (or crevice) of 2-3mm. We can easily clean this with toothbrusing/flossing.
If the bacteria in plaque cause inflammation, then this causes swelling of the gum and damage to the bone around the tooth. It develops into a deeper pocket, which becomes even harder to clean. In the early stages of this disease, a dentist or periodontist may be able to clean this up (root planing), so that it returns to normal.
Sometimes after root planing there is still an excess amount of gum and a deep pocket. So the periodontist may do minor gum surgery to take away this pocket and perhaps trim the bony contour in order to get you back to the 2-3mm depth that you can maintain easily.
If your periodontist has suggested this, and you want to keep your teeth, then go for it.
Later... laser treatment as suggested below has no better results than traditional therapies. But it will cost more and take longer because the equipment is much more expensive, and it isn't as fast as doing by hand. Nor can it do the range of treatment done by hand. New technology doesn't necessarily mean better technology.

Answer 2

If your doc mentions to you that the pockets between your gums and teeth are more than 3 mm deep. This means there is excessive bacteria and they can start causing gum recession bone loss and loosen your teeth. At 3mm to 5mm usually you General Doc can do what is called a Scaling and Root Planning aka Deep Cleaning. Any deeper of mm and you'll have to go to a Periodontist. All I have to say is your doc in't saying it just to make money, if he mentions it, then it is needed. They went to 8 years of schooling, they know what their talking about. I knew a lot of patients who just didn't like the idea of anything more than a cleaning, so they would get anything else done, and the keep complaining about problems as if the doc never said anything, so I'd trust your doc. Especially if he has to refer you out, then he really doesn't get anything for it, he's basically giving the money to someone else. So, It it was recommended, I say go for it, the worst that could happen is that your gums heal up and tighten and your sensitivity goes away, and you prevent tooth loss and tooth decay. and more expensive procedures, like $800 Root Canal Therapy (RCT), Then $700 crown to keep the dead tooth that just had RCT from crumbling and needing to be extracted $200 and then needing a 3 unit bridge $2100 ($700 per unit, 1 unit to fill the gap and the other 2 to hold the unit in place which means cutting tooth that probablydoesn't need to be cut. Oh yeah, get the surgery, you're preventing a whole work of unnecessary problems. GOOD LUCK!

Answer 3

Before you start letting a dentist or periodontist cut on your gums, please look at this website. It is new technology and most periodontists are threatened by it, therefore they would not tell you about it. If they did it would force them to either buy it or would put them out of business.

http://www.millenniumdental.com/periolase.html

Answer 4

I had gum surgery once,,to remove some double-bubble from my third molars.

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Answer 5

I have no idea. But i have to have oral surgery this january or in the summer. I am having my wisdom teeth cut out. But I am doing this on the advice of my dentist and my oral surgeon.

Answer 6

Check out this web site to learn more about the issue:

http://www.aboutcosmeticdentistry.com/procedures/gum_surgery.html

Answer 7

needing to have your gums scraped because of gum disease. that's how they clean out the crud, & it hurts so be prepared

Answer 8

I don't know.....maybe the fact that your doctor said you need it?

Otherwise he/she wouldn't have recommended it.

Answer 9

.If you have periodontal disease and your teeth are loosening. or if you have some other dental or gum disease.