Osseous Surgery
Your bone and gum tissue
should fit snugly around your teeth like a turtleneck
around your neck. When you have periodontal disease,
this supporting tissue and bone is destroyed,
forming "pockets" around the teeth.
Over time, these pockets become deeper, providing
a larger space for bacteria to live. As bacteria
develop around the teeth, they can accumulate
and advance under the gum tissue. These deep
pockets collect even more bacteria, resulting
in further bone and tissue loss. Eventually,
if too much bone is lost, the teeth will need
to be extracted.
During this procedure, your periodontist folds
back the gum tissue and removes the disease-causing
bacteria before securing the tissue into place.
In some cases, irregular surfaces of the damaged
bone are smoothed to limit areas where disease-causing
bacteria can hide. This allows the gum tissue
to better reattach to healthy bone |
