Everything You Should Know about Periodontitis and Dental Implants

Everyone knows about caries. Almost 100% of people have it. But not everyone has heard of periodontitis, although it is the second most common disease of the oral cavity. This ignorance plays a cruel joke on health, and treating tooth decay, people can forget about the gums or believe that they will recover on their own. However, while untreated caries will lead to the loss of a few teeth, neglected periodontitis leads to a 100% loss of all teeth in the mouth.

What is more, if you lose your teeth, dental implants won’t solve the problem as the disease will continue to spread around your body. It is necessary to remember that periodontitis is an inflammatory process. This means that pathogenic bacteria accumulated in the oral cavity destroy both the teeth, gums and ligamentous apparatus and the entire body from the inside. The bacteria enter the gastrointestinal tract, the cardiovascular system, cause pathologies of kidneys and liver, worsen the course of chronic diseases, such as diabetes. 

What is periodontitis and why is it dangerous?

Gum disease can be curable, but it can be chronic practically not amenable to complete relief. Gingivitis is the initial inflammation of the gums, which is manifested by their slight redness. Signs of bleeding, in this case, are insignificant and occur mainly when in contact with some solid object – a brush or food. If you carry out professional cleaning of teeth and gums at the dentist and improve hygiene at home adding an irrigator to the arsenal, then this disease easily stops.

But if nothing is done with gingivitis, the inflammatory process goes deeper and affects not only the gums but also the entire complex of periodontal tissues: the ligaments by which the tooth is held in the hole, as well as the bone itself. This is periodontitis. If there is no treatment or therapy is carried out once, without some well-developed plan or even a set of actions, the disease progresses.

Periodontitis is caused by microbes. More precisely, the bacteria and viruses that make up plaque and tartar. These deposits are first located on the surface of the teeth and then penetrate under the gums accumulating even on the roots of the teeth. Therefore, periodontitis is most often diagnosed in people who do not pay due attention to oral hygiene.

The bacteria that cause the inflammatory process to release toxins, which literally poison our body. They adversely affect the kidneys, can cause stomach ulcers or blood clots due to getting into the bloodstream. In our body, everything is connected!

Due to the destruction of ligaments and bones, exposure of dental roots occurs, because all the tissues around them decrease. The teeth are already very poorly kept in the holes and begin to stagger. At first, they simply disperse and then completely fall out – this is the main consequence of periodontitis. Not a single one though. 

Do Dental Implants Solve Periodontitis Issues?

Dental implants help to substitute for the loss of teeth due to periodontitis, but they do not address the disease as such. In order to cure periodontitis, an integrated approach is important. You should always start with an examination and diagnosis – computed tomography in order to understand the degree of tissue destruction. It is also important to pass tests: general blood and urine tests will show the condition of the body as a whole, and seeding on the microflora from the gum pockets (in simple terms, from the gums) will give the doctor the opportunity to choose those antibiotics that will affect the inflammatory pathogenic process.

The second step is usual oral hygiene, that is, the removal of deposits using ultrasound, abrasive and manual processing. The goal is the removal of surface deposits, as well as the polishing of enamel. It is important to ensure that the surface of teeth becomes smooth and there are as few pores as possible on which plaque will accumulate.

Important! Before the deep cleaning, splinting is mandatory if the teeth are movable. Experts note that often teeth stay in the holes just because there is a thick layer of stone around them. Therefore, if you remove the deposits, the teeth simply fall out.

The next stage is curettage of the gums, which can be open or closed, that is, with or without gum exfoliation. This is a surgical operation that is needed to remove plaque and polish teeth in the root area. That is, this is a deep cleaning.

Do you know? Numerous studies have proven that our body in many situations can cope with the problem on its own. But this does not mean that the situation should be left to chance. This means that the body just needs a little push in order for it to begin the recovery process. This principle informs the latest achievements of the dental industry: today, there are a lot of materials that trigger the growth of cells (for example, bone tissue). This way, there are fewer complications – your own materials are not rejected.

Often, in advanced stages of periodontitis, the most optimal solution is dental implantation according to the immediate loading protocol. 

In addition to the listed methods, which are aimed at removing the focus of the inflammatory process, plaque and stone, a few more procedures are important:

• The use of platelet-rich plasma in the form of injections or special membranes (plasmolifting)  accelerate the process of tissue repair,
• Drug therapy: application of regenerative dressings, vitamin, and antibiotic therapy,
• Laser therapy for polishing the surface of the teeth, antiseptic treatment and relief of inflammation,
• Preparations enriched with growth factors to stimulate the growth of bone cells and periodontal ligaments.

Does Periodontal Disease Affect Dental Implants? 

Periodontitis is not a contraindication to dental implants. If you suffer from periodontal disease and want to install dental implants in Albuquerque, there are options available:   

• Implantation with the preservation of live teeth. This solution is possible only if complex treatment is carried out and it gives positive results, that is, inflammation is eliminated and tissues are restored. Otherwise, implantation is dangerous due to infection in the oral cavity.  The disease will only progress and there will remain a high risk of rejection of the implants due to inflammation of the tissues around them. Here, it is important to understand: you have stopped periodontitis, put implants, but that’s not all. Once the inflammation has arisen once, it may appear again. This means that you need to completely change the approach to hygiene, be observed by a periodontist and, if necessary, re-take treatment. So it’s possible to keep all the results achieved. 
• Implantation with the extraction of the remaining teeth. This is a cardinal decision in situations where it is useless to treat periodontitis and when there are negative consequences for the body as a whole. Diseased teeth are immediately removed and replaced by implants. This is not only possible but also safe, as it allows you to forget what periodontitis is once and for all. The foci of infection are eliminated, so the development of inflammation stops.

Conclusion

The result of complex implantation against the background of advanced periodontitis is a new smile, new teeth and the absence of inflammation. 

It is important for a patient with periodontitis to understand that, in fact, there are practically no options to restore teeth, except with the help of implantation. Removable dentures will not work, as they will not hold well and provoke gum inflammation due to increased pressure on them, thus, making the situation worse.

So implantation often becomes the only right decision not only for the restoration of teeth lost during periodontitis but also as a method of getting rid of this pathology forever. Removing mobile teeth and installing dental implants is carried out simultaneously, in just one surgical operation, and new teeth, that is, fixed prostheses are installed in up to 3 days. So that you can smile and chew almost immediately after fixation of implants.