In the fight to keep your teeth and keep them healthy, cavities are not the only threat; there is also gum disease. Gum disease (or periodontal disease), which is an immune system response triggered by a bacterial infection, can be difficult to fight.  Brushing daily, flossing daily, and going twice a year to have your teeth professionally cleaned helps many people prevent gum disease—but for many others, even these precautions aren’t enough.

For years, the standard of care for treating early stages of gum disease has been a procedure called scaling and root planing.  This procedure non-surgically removes most of the hard and soft deposits on root surfaces.  Though this procedure alone has helped many people stop their gum disease from progressing, we have been looking for an improved way of treating the disease with more reliable outcomes, especially for people with more complex cases of the disease.

Because of the aforementioned, in conjunction with scaling and root planing, we now use lasers in treating gum disease.  The benefits of adding lasers to our periodontal disease therapy include:

  • Greater decrease in number of bacteria in the gums without the use of antibiotics
  • Improved immune system response to therapy
  • Better healing of gum tissues
  • Less likelihood of surgical intervention in the future
  • Better control of bleeding after therapy.
  • Better pain management after therapy


Our Dental Hygienist, James Calkins, RDH, has been certified since 2006 to use lasers in periodontal disease therapy.  He has been working with lasers clinically since February 2006 and has seen firsthand the advantages of laser therapy in treatment of gum disease.

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