Gum Disease 
Maybe you’ve noticed some tenderness with your gums, maybe even a bit of bleeding. Does it mean you have gum disease, advanced gum disease or something else? A brief visit to a dentist’s office will give you definitive answers about whether you have gum disease or not, as well as treatment options for reversing it or managing it in more advanced cases. Take a look at the things you can do to combat gum disease at home along with a rundown of some of the symptoms of advanced gum disease.

Things to Do at Home
Don’t neglect the basics. Brushing and flossing daily are some of the best things you can do to stop gum disease in its early stages or to keep it in check in its advanced stages.

Beyond the basics, you can strengthen your dental care routine with products such as a waterpik, which you can use to wash away any food particles still trapped between your teeth after brushing and flossing.

Use an antibacterial mouth rinse to kill any of the one hundred plus types of bacteria that could be in the human mouth at any given time. Consider upgrading to an electric brush, which delivers more power and a deeper cleaning than manual brushes.

Things Your Dentist Can Do For You
A routine teeth cleaning can do wonders in turning the tide again gum disease and it’s often one of the most affordable services offered at dentist’s offices.

Take a look at some of the other procedures your periodontist, a dentist specializing in gum disease treatment, may use to help win back your mouth from gum disease:

• – Root scaling and planing: scaling and root planing involves removing built-up tartar from the roots of teeth and cleaning the roots so they no longer form pockets in the gums.
• – Laser gum therapy: uses finely-tuned lasers to remove decayed gum tissue to stop gum disease from infecting more tissue
• – Receding gum therapy: the Pinhole Surgical Technique™, an alternative to grafting gum tissue into receding areas, enables dentists to re extend receding gums back over teeth.

Learn More
The best way to fight gum disease is to coordinate your efforts at home with your dentist’s efforts in-office. Set up a time to talk with a periodontist in Chicago, IL to learn more about your options for combating gum disease.