Helping Your Gums Beyond Scaling and Planing
Posted in Gum Disease | May 15, 2020
If you have the early signs of gum disease, where plaque and tartar have made their way under your gumline, Dr. Egger will probably opt to perform some root scaling and root planing to address the problem. With root scaling, he moves under the gumline and removes the tartar and plaque that have taken up residence. That’s followed by root planing, where he smooths the root surfaces so that the gums can adhere back down to the tooth root more easily.
From there, Dr. Egger enlists two other allies in the fight against a patient’s gum disease — Atridox and Arestin. These two antibiotic treatments help his root scaling and planing by extending their benefits for three weeks.
Here’s some more about these two treatments.
Atridox
When you have periodontal disease, your gums start to pull away from your tooth roots because of the bacterial inflammation. This creates periodontal pockets, which are perfect places for even more bacteria breeding. Even after root scaling and planing, these pockets can be a concern if bacteria linger.
Atridox is an antibiotic gel that Dr. Egger places down in the infected periodontal pockets. Once in the pockets, the gel solidifies into a waxy substance. This allows the gel to remain in the pocket and gradually release its antibiotic (doxycycline) to kill the bacteria for up to three weeks.
Arestin
Similar to Atridox, Arestin is an antibiotic that is placed into the periodontal pockets. Arestin is a powder that contains microspheres of the antibiotic minocycline. After Dr. Egger is finished with your root scaling and planing, he places the powdered Arestin into the periodontal pockets. For three weeks, the powdered microspheres slowly dissolve, killing any bacteria present.
Both Atridox and Arestin have been shown to increase the effectiveness of these treatments for gum disease. By helping keep bacteria at bay for an additional 21 days, these two treatments allow the patient’s gums to heal and begin to adhere back to the tooth roots more quickly and effectively.
Neither of these treatments requires any special attention or care by the patient.
Do your gums bleed when you brush? Do they look more red than pink? You may have the early signs of gum disease. Call Dr. Egger at (989) 773-3560 to make an appointment.