Gum disease can be easy to underestimate. Maybe your gums bleed a little when you floss. Maybe they’ve started pulling away from a tooth. Or maybe you don’t notice anything unusual at all, but then your dentist tells you there are signs of gum disease during a routine exam.
That’s not uncommon.
Gum disease can develop quietly, and the right treatment depends heavily on how far it has progressed. Early gingivitis may require relatively simple changes. Periodontitis, which affects the tissues and bone supporting your teeth, needs more involved care.
That’s why there isn’t just one gum disease treatment that works for everyone.
At Shorewood Family Dental Care, we start by figuring out what’s actually happening below the gumline. From there, we can determine what your gums need—and what they don’t.
First, What Exactly is Gum Disease?
Gum disease usually begins with bacteria and plaque accumulating around the teeth and gumline.
The earliest stage is gingivitis.
At this point, you may notice gums that look red or swollen or bleed when you brush and floss. You can reverse gum disease when plaque and tartar are removed and good oral hygiene is maintained.
If the inflammation progresses deeper, however, it can develop into periodontitis. That’s a different situation.
With periodontitis, spaces known as periodontal pockets form between the teeth and gums. Bacteria can collect deeper below the gumline, and over time the infection and inflammation can damage the tissues and bone that hold your teeth in place.
Once that supporting bone has been lost, we can’t simply turn the clock backward.
But we can treat the disease.
The goal becomes controlling the infection, preventing or slowing additional damage and helping you keep your natural teeth for as long as possible.
Signs You May Need Gum Disease Treatment
Bleeding gums are probably the symptom people recognize most easily, but they’re not the only one.
Watch for:
- Red, swollen or tender gums.
- Bleeding when brushing or flossing.
- Persistent bad breath.
- Gums pulling away from the teeth.
- Teeth that appear longer than before.
- Sensitivity around the gumline.
- Changes in the way your teeth fit together.
- Pus around the teeth and gums.
- Loose or shifting teeth.
Here’s the tricky part:
Gum disease doesn’t always hurt.
You can have periodontal disease without a dramatic toothache telling you something is wrong. That’s one reason regular dental exams and gum measurements matter. They can reveal changes that aren’t obvious when you look in the mirror.
What Gum Disease Treatments Are Available?
Treatment isn’t based simply on whether you “have gum disease.”
We need to know which stage you’re dealing with.
Someone with mild gingivitis doesn’t need the same treatment as someone with deep periodontal pockets and bone loss. And throwing aggressive treatment at an early problem doesn’t make sense either.
Treatment may involve one or several of the following approaches.
Professional Dental Cleaning
For gingivitis, sometimes the answer is refreshingly straightforward.
Plaque can be removed at home with brushing and cleaning between the teeth. Tartar cannot.
A professional teeth cleaning removes plaque and hardened tartar from areas you can’t adequately clean yourself. Combined with better home care, this may be enough to get early gum inflammation under control.
This is also where we’ll talk about what you’re doing at home.
If there’s an area you’re consistently missing, your toothbrush isn’t reaching the gumline well, or flossing is difficult, we’d rather help you fix the problem than repeatedly tell you to “floss more.”
Scaling and Root Planing
Once gum disease extends below the gumline, an ordinary cleaning may no longer be enough.
Scaling and root planing is a deep teeth cleaning used to treat periodontal disease.
Scaling removes plaque and tartar from the teeth and below the gumline. Root planing smooths and cleans the root surfaces, helping create an environment where the gums can heal more effectively.
Depending on how much of the mouth needs treatment, this may be completed in sections rather than treating everything during one appointment.
Local anesthetic can be used to keep you comfortable.
Afterward, we’ll evaluate how your gums respond. Sometimes this treatment, combined with excellent home care and ongoing periodontal maintenance, is enough to control the disease.
Sometimes we need to do more.
Laser Gum Disease Treatment
For certain patients, a dental laser can be used as part of periodontal treatment.
At Shorewood Family Dental Care, diode laser technology allows us to precisely treat soft tissue and can be useful in managing areas affected by periodontal disease.
The laser can help remove diseased soft tissue and reduce bacteria in targeted areas while minimizing trauma to surrounding tissue.
That precision is one of the reasons lasers can be useful in dentistry.
But laser treatment isn’t a magic eraser for gum disease. It doesn’t replace good home care, professional cleanings or ongoing periodontal maintenance. And whether laser treatment is appropriate depends on what’s happening in your mouth.
Think of it as another tool we can use when the situation calls for it, rather than something every patient with bleeding gums automatically needs.
What If Gum Disease Is More Advanced?
More advanced periodontal disease can require more advanced treatment.
If deep periodontal pockets remain after nonsurgical treatment, additional periodontal procedures may be recommended to access areas that are difficult to clean effectively.
Depending on the amount and location of tissue or bone loss, treatment may sometimes include periodontal surgery or regenerative procedures.
And when a tooth has lost too much supporting bone to remain stable, there are cases where it simply can’t be saved.
We don’t jump to that conclusion.
Whenever keeping a natural tooth is reasonably possible, that’s something worth considering. But keeping a severely compromised tooth at all costs isn’t always the healthiest decision either.
If periodontal disease has already affected your teeth, you can learn more about fixing teeth with gum disease and the restorative options that may be available after the infection has been brought under control.
Does Gum Disease Go Away After Treatment?
This is where the distinction between gingivitis and periodontitis becomes important.
Often, it is possible to reverse gingivitis.
Periodontitis can be treated and managed, but damage that has already occurred to the bone and supporting structures doesn’t simply disappear.
So once you’ve been treated for periodontal disease, staying ahead of it matters.
That may mean coming in for periodontal maintenance more frequently than someone who has never had gum disease.
It also means paying attention at home. Brush thoroughly twice a day. Clean between your teeth every day. If we’ve recommended a particular brush, flossing aid or other cleaning tool because of your specific needs, use it.
Not perfectly. Consistently. That’s what matters.
Why Periodontal Maintenance Matters
It’s tempting to think of gum disease treatment as a one-and-done procedure.
You get the deep cleaning. Your gums improve. Problem solved.
Periodontal disease doesn’t always work that way.
After treatment, bacteria and tartar can begin accumulating again. Regular periodontal maintenance allows us to clean areas that are difficult to reach at home and keep an eye on pocket depths, inflammation and other signs that the disease may be becoming active again.
Some patients need these visits more frequently than the traditional twice-a-year cleaning schedule.
That’s not because treatment failed. It’s because maintaining periodontal health after gum disease sometimes requires a different routine than preventing it in the first place.
Can You Prevent Gum Disease?
You can’t control every risk factor, but there’s a lot you can do to prevent gum disease.
Start with the basics:
- Brush twice a day with fluoride toothpaste and clean between your teeth daily.
- Don’t smoke or use tobacco.
- Keep up with professional dental cleanings and exams.
- And pay attention when something changes.
Bleeding gums shouldn’t simply become something you get used to. Neither should persistent bad breath, receding gums or teeth that suddenly feel different.
There’s also no prize for waiting until something hurts.
When we identify early gum disease symptoms or periodontal disease, the more options we generally have for managing it.
Gum Disease Treatment Without the Lecture
If it’s been a while since you’ve seen a dentist, you may already know your gums aren’t in great shape. You don’t need us to make you feel worse about it.
Life happens. Dental care gets postponed. People are nervous about treatment. Sometimes gum disease progresses without someone realizing anything is wrong.
We’ve been caring for families in Shorewood and the surrounding Joliet community since 1974, and we’ve seen dental needs change considerably over a person’s lifetime.
What matters now is figuring out where your oral health stands and what we can do from here.
If you’re experiencing bleeding gums, gum recession, loose teeth or other signs of periodontal disease (or you’ve already been told you need gum disease treatments) contact Shorewood Family Dental Care.
Call us at 815-725-5991 to schedule an appointment.
We’ll evaluate your gums, explain what we’re seeing and recommend treatment based on what you actually need.
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Originally published September 13, 2016. Updated September 8, 2026.
