How is periodontitis treated?

Periodontitis can be treated through various approaches, including daily oral hygiene maintenance, basic physical scaling, adjunctive local pharmacotherapy, periodontal deep therapy, and periodontal surgical procedures. If severe tooth swelling and pain or profuse purulent discharge from the gums occur, prompt medical consultation and treatment are strongly recommended.

1. Maintain Daily Oral Hygiene: Brush teeth thoroughly twice daily (morning and evening) and use dental floss to remove food debris lodged between teeth. Reduce consumption of sticky and high-sugar foods to slow down dental plaque formation, maintain baseline oral cleanliness, and minimize persistent bacterial assault on periodontal tissues.

2. Perform Basic Physical Scaling: Professional teeth cleaning (scaling) removes supragingival dental calculus and plaque. This eliminates surface deposits on tooth enamel, reduces gingival surface inflammation, alleviates redness, swelling, and bleeding, and creates favorable conditions for subsequent periodontal tissue recovery.

3. Administer Adjunctive Local Pharmacotherapy: Following professional intervention, topical medications are applied directly into periodontal pockets. These agents suppress pathogenic bacterial proliferation within the pockets, reduce mucosal inflammatory responses, slow down tissue destruction, and help control local inflammatory progression.

4. Undertake Periodontal Deep Therapy: Subgingival scaling and root planing remove calculus and diseased tissue embedded on root surfaces. This eliminates irritants deep within periodontal pockets, promotes gingival reattachment to the tooth surface, prevents further alveolar bone loss, and stabilizes the tooth-supporting structures.

5. Perform Periodontal Surgical Procedures: When conservative management proves insufficient, appropriate surgical interventions are performed following comprehensive clinical evaluation. These procedures reshape diseased gingival and alveolar bone contours, eliminate deep periodontal pockets, improve the periodontal environment, and preserve teeth retaining functional viability.

Develop a habit of regular dental check-ups and adjust the frequency of follow-up visits according to individual periodontal healing progress. Correct harmful chewing habits, avoid excessive consumption of hard foods that may abrade tooth structure, and consistently manage the oral environment to delay further progression of periodontal disease.