Guided Tissue Regeneration (Emdogain, Bio-Oss or membranes)

In a healthy disease-free mouth, your bone and gum tissue should fit firmly around the teeth. If you have periodontal disease (gum disease), this will result in the inflammation and destruction of supporting gum tissues and bone by bacteria, forming pockets around the teeth.

If your home care is inadequate and regular dental treatment is not sought, these pockets will become deeper and harbour more bacteria. This accumulation of bacteria will lead to further tissue and bone loss and may require the affected tooth or teeth to be extracted.

The Periodontist will measure the depth of pockets in your mouth.

• Measurements up to 3mm are within the range of healthy gums.

• Anything over 6mm indicates bone loss and can be too deep for you to clean effectively at home so a procedure to regenerate bone may be recommended.

Procedure

The procedure is called Guided Tissue Regeneration (GTR) and can be carried out under a local anesthetic.

The gum tissue is folded back and the infected bacteria deposits are removed.

• Emdogain,(derived from baby pigs teeth),
• BIO-OSS (derived from cows bone)
• and/or a membrane are placed,

then sutures are put in to hold the gums back in place.

Post operative considerations

After surgery, it is important not to clean the surgical area for about 7-10 days or until the sutures have been removed.

Using a mouthwash containing Chlorhexidene (i.e. Curtasept, Savacol, plaquacide, available from chemist), is all that is needed for keeping the area clean during this period.

After this initial period of healing, gentle brushing with a soft toothbrush can be resumed.

After a certain period of healing you may be given instructions on the use of an interproximal brush (a small bottle brush shaped brush) to use between the treated teeth.

Benefits of treatment

Reducing the pockets depths and removing the bacteria will prevent further damage caused by periodontal disease.

A combination of daily home care and professional maintenance (a scale and clean every four to six months) are necessary to improve your chances of maintaining healthy teeth and gums.