1. How did I get periodontal disease?
Gum (periodontal) disease is caused by a sticky film of bacteria called plaque. Plaque is always forming on your teeth, but if they aren’t cleaned well, the bacteria in plaque can cause your gums to become inflamed. When this happens, your gums will pull away from your teeth and form spaces called pockets. Plaque then gets trapped in these pockets and cannot be removed with regular brushing.
2. Why do I need scaling and root planing (SRP), why isn’t a regular cleaning (prophy) enough?
If you have periodontal disease a prophy will have some benefit, but will only slow and not stop the disease. The perio condition will continue to deteriorate without SRP. As the perio condition worsens there is an increased risk of tooth loss and known causation or association with serious cardiac/stroke consequences. Scaling and root planing may take more than one visit to complete and may require a local anesthetic.
