Laser Decontamination
Patient Introduction to Laser Bacterial Reduction
We are always learning and working to raise the standard of patient care in our office. As a result, we recently added a new optional procedure to your routine dental cleaning to help fight periodontal disease.
Gum disease affects over 50% of adults and is a growing epidemic in our society. Understanding of this disease has increased greatly over the last few years. Gum Disease is a bacterial infection in the pockets around teeth. Our teeth-cleaning appointments now treat gum disease by manually removing irritants (our standard hygiene appointment), but they can also include a procedure that addresses the underlying infection that causes it.
With that in mind, we recommend that all of our patients with a history of gum disease have their teeth decontaminated at every routine cleaning appointment for 3 major reasons:
- To kill periodontal disease bacteria and stop their infections before they cause physical destruction or loss of attachment around your teeth. Studies show that Laser Decontamination reduces bacterial counts from billions of CFU (colony-forming units) to only hundreds. It can take up to 6 weeks for bacteria to reach maximum-capacity plateaus again.
- To bio-stimulate new blood vessels, collagen, gum attachment, and bone formation.
- To reduce or eliminate bacteremia. During normal cleaning, most patients will have some areas that may bleed; this allows bacteria present in all mouths to enter the bloodstream and sometimes settle in weakened areas of the body, such as a damaged heart valve or artificial knee or hip. We pre-medicate patients we know have a heart condition or artificial joints with antibiotics so these bacteria cannot harm those areas. Latest research shows that these oral pathogens have now been linked to other diseases such as cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, low birth weight babies, diabetes, etc. Anything we can do to reduce or eliminate these bacteremias benefits our patients.
Bottom line:
The laser decontamination is a low-cost, highly effective, and painless procedure that only takes about 5-10 minutes and is available at our office. At this time, it is not covered by insurance, but the low cost ($35) makes it affordable at every cleaning. We recommend that you take advantage of this service, particularly if you have a history of gum disease, diabetes, or dry mouth syndrome.