Your guide to help you find a Dentist in your area who does LANAP

Treatment Options

For patients with mild to moderate periodontal disease...the most common treatment involves scaling and root planing the deep pockets of infection surrounding the roots of your teeth.  Sometimes the layperson will refer to this as a "deep cleaning", or "gum planing".   Depending on the severity, the dental hygienist might do either all of the mouth at one visit, or if the pockets are very deep, treat just a portion of the mouth at a time.  The drawback to this treatment is it's temporary benefit.  You can pretty well expect to do this all over again in two to three years.  In addition, it fails to eliminate the bacteria in the periodontal pockets as effectively as the Periolase is able to do.  Trying to remove all of the bacteria with just scaling instruments is like trying to scoop sand at the beach with a fork.

For patients with moderate to severe periodontal conditions...although scaling and root planing will certainly help, it is not considered definitive treatment for more severe cases and does have it's drawbacks.  Anytime there are pockets deeper than 5mm present, either traditional periodontal surgery or Laser Assisted New Attachment Procedure (LANAP^TM) provide a much more predictable, longer lasting result.  There are many advantages to LANAP^TM using the amazing Periolase MVP-7.   In contrast with traditional periodontal surgery, there's no need to flap the gum tissue back and trim the jawbone with the drill.  With the Periolase there's no scalpel, no sutures, no pain!

For ALL of our patients with any degree of periodontal disease...there are many different co-factors that worsen this disease process.  Some of them we can control, some we cannot. 

The two biggest co-factors that really complicate periodontal disease are smoking and Diabetes. 
Other co-factors include:
1.  Malocclusion (crooked teeth with an uneven bite),
2.  Nocturnal parafunction (traumatically clenching and grinding your teeth during sleep),
3.  Poor nutrition,
4.  Poor oral homecare....inadequate brushing and flossing. 
There are a few others, but these are the main ones involved. 

When doing LANAP we try to address all the issues that "can" be addressed, such as:

1.    Bacteria ─ The bacterial infection can hide from our instruments when doing scaling and root planing, but they can't hide from the Periolase MVP-7 while doing LANAP,

2.    Smoking ─ We urge the patient to consider quitting,

3.    Malocclusion & Parafunction ─ All LANAP patients have their bite adjusted and either full arch night guards or NTI's (smaller splints that fit on just the front teeth) prescribed for them.

4.    Poor Nutrition ─ It is vitally important to eat well to aid the process of healing.  We recommend that you supplement your diet with either a good muti-vitamin supplement during treatment, or better yet, take a whole food based supplement.  Unlike vitamins, which offer a small assortment of necessary nutrients, Whole Foods such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, & grains contain almost every nutrient known to man (as well as many others yet to be discovered).  This is VITALLY necessary for proper healing.  More information about the superiority of Whole Foods over multi-vitamins can be found with these articles....Multi-Vitamins Disappoint....as well as The Multivitamin Scam.

5.    Poor homecare  ─  We emphasize proper technique and encourage the patient to become an active participant in their own health.  For some patients an electric brush such as the RotaDent, Oral-B Triumph, or Sonicare may be prescribed. 

Please take the time to learn more about LANAP^TM by clicking on the button on the Home page.  We also have several interesting videos there that will explain this amazing new approach to treating periodontal disease.

 

Copyright © 2010 Daniel T. Quevedo, DDS,  All Rights Reserved