You want a healthy smile. You probably want an attractive smile, too! If either or both of those things are true, then you should learn about laser dentistry at Shorewood Family Dental Care.
Dental lasers offer an advanced way to treat gum infections and to make cosmetic improvements to your smile. Lasers allow us to perform procedures more efficiently and with shorter recovery times for you.
If you have gum disease or a gummy smile, call 815-725-5991 or contact us online to set up an appointment with one of our dentists in Shorewood, IL.
Laser Treatment To Fight Gum Disease
Gum disease is the leading cause of tooth loss in the United States.
Before it gets to that point, however, gum disease can cause your gums to feel swollen and bleed when you brush or floss. Your gums make look redder than usual, too. These are symptoms of gingivitis, which is considered a mild form of gum disease.
If left untreated, gingivitis can lead to periodontitis, the advanced form of gum disease. With periodontitis, you also need treatment by a dental professional to remove the infection from your mouth.
The older way of doing that involved cutting out the infected tissue with a scalpel. This also required sutures to close your gums and a return trip to the dentist to have the sutures removed.
With the laser dentistry, we have a gentler and better way of getting rid of gum disease.
With a scalpel, dentists often had to remove healthy gum tissue along with the diseased tissue to make sure all the infection was removed. By using the laser, we can more accurately target the infection. This preserves more of your healthy gum tissue, too.
At the same time, the laser seals the healthy tissue. Because of this, we usually don’t need sutures at the end of your procedure. You will heal faster as well.
And once your infection is removed, we will be happy to work with you to keep your gums as healthy as they can be going forward.
Using Lasers To Improve Gummy Smiles
How do you know if you have a gummy smile?
To a degree, this is a matter of personal perception, but you can answer the question on your own by looking in a mirror.
When you smile, are your teeth the primary focus? Do your gums overwhelm your smile? Do you feel the need to keep your lips closed because you don’t like how much of your gums show when you smile?
If you don’t like showing so much gum or you are embarrassed to smile because of your gums, then you could have a gummy smile. The solution is a cosmetic procedure called gum reshaping.
From a practical standpoint, this is similar to a gum disease treatment. Some of your gum tissue is removed to correct the problem.
Again, the old way of doing this was using a scalpel to cut away excess gum tissue so more of your teeth would show when you smile. Today, we can remove a part of your gums by evaporating the tissue with laser dentistry to give your smile a more pleasing appearance.
And once again, our dental laser will seal your gum tissue on its own, so sutures are rarely required.
Could Our Laser Help You?
If you have gum disease, it’s important to get treated as soon as possible. This for the sake of your smile and for your oral health. If you have a gummy smile, cosmetic treatment could help you feel less self-conscious and more confident.
You can get either of these procedures at Shorewood Family Dental Care. To learn more or to make an appointment, contact us online or call 815-725-5991.
