Laser teeth cleaning

We are constantly striving to advance the standard of patient care in our office.  We have recently added a new procedure to your routine cleaning to help fight periodontal disease.

PX153Periodontal disease affects approximately 80% of adults and is a growing epidemic in our society.  Understanding of this disease has increased greatly over the last few years.  We now know that Periodontal Disease is a bacteral infection in the pockets around your teeth.  Therefore, we not only treat this disease with removal of mechanical irritants and diseased tissue (your normal cleaning), but are also addressing the underlying infection that causes it.  With that thought in mind we recommend that all of our patients have their teeth decontaminated during cleaning appointments for three major reasons:

  1.  To reduce or eliminate bacteremias.  During the normal cleaning process most patients will have some areas that may bleed, this allows bacteria that are present in all of our mouths to flood into the blood stream and sometimes settle in weakened areas of our body such as a damaged heart valve or artificial joint.  We pre-medicate those patients that we know have a heart condition or artificial joints with antibiotics so that bacteria can’t cause harm to these areas.  Latest research shows that these oral pathogens have now been linked to a number of other diseases such as cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, low birth weight babies, diabetes, etc.  Needless to say, anything that we can do to reduce or eliminate these bacteremias is a positive for our patients.
  2. To prevent cross contamination of infections in one area of your mouth to other areas.  Decontamination minimizes the chance that bacteria will grow and spread inside our mouths.
  3. To kill periodontal disease bacteria and stop their infections before they cause physical destruction or loss of gum attachment and bone around your teeth.

The laser decontamination process is painless and normally takes about 5 minutes.  Dr. Scroggins highly recommends that you take advantage of this service as part of your normal continuing care cleaning.

Please ask our hygienist if you have any questions or call us at 314-965-3500 regarding Laser Cleanings