Periodontal Services • Prosper, TX
Specialty Care for
Your Gums & More
Your smile, just like where you live, has a foundation. Instead of concrete, your teeth rely on a base made up of your gums and the surrounding bone to stay in place. Without proper oral hygiene, this area of the mouth can actually develop an infection known as periodontal disease, which can lead to bleeding gums, bad breath, and ultimately tooth loss. Thankfully, certified periodontist Dr. Stephen Walker is an expert at finding and taking care of these kinds of issues to ensure that your entire smile, not just your teeth, remain healthy for many years to come.
Why Choose Texas Dental Surgery for Periodontal Services?
- Certified Periodontal Expert: Dr. Stephen Walker
- Gum Recontouring: Take Care of Your “Gummy” Smile
- Platelet-Rich Plasma: Heal Faster & Feel Better Sooner
Scaling & Root Planing
When caught early, periodontal disease can usually be treated using scaling and root planing, which are often simply referred to as a “deep cleaning.” This will involve using a small scaler to remove the plaque and bacteria deposits that have accumulated along the gum line, and then the roots of the teeth will be reshaped and smoothed out. This is to make it harder for plaque to gather near the gums in the future, protecting a patient from reinfection.
Non-Surgical Periodontal Treatment
Dr. Walker is able to provide a wide array of treatments that can combat and prevent periodontal disease. Topical and oral antibiotics can eliminate bacteria hidden deep below the gum line that is beyond the reach of regular instruments, and a pocket reduction can shrink the areas in the mouth where bacteria likes to hide and multiply most. For ongoing care, he can offer patients special toothpaste and mouthwashes that are specifically designed to inhibit periodontal disease.
Gum Recontouring
Whenever you smile, do your gums show more prominently than your teeth? This can give the smile a somewhat “off-kilter” appearance that makes even the most confident person feel self-conscious, but thankfully, Dr. Walker can offer a solution. He can remove any excess tissue quickly and painlessly with a soft tissue laser to reveal more of the teeth and give a patient that perfectly proportioned look they desire. Better yet, the entire procedure can be completed over the course of one short appointment, instantly delivering dramatic results.
Bone & Gum Tissue Grafting
Dr. Walker can perform a pair of grafting procedures that can drastically improve a patient’s oral health and appearance at the same time. A gum graft uses a patient’s own oral tissue to reverse gum recession, and a bone graft can strengthen and prepare a patient’s jawbone to support dental implants. Both treatments can usually be completed in just one appointment, and thanks to sedation dentistry, a comfortable experience is guaranteed for every patient.
Crown Lengthening
Sometimes, a patient’s tooth may appear to be too short because most of it is still encapsulated within the jawbone. Or, in other cases, a patient may develop decay or damage on a tooth that’s located below the gum line. For either, crown lengthening is the solution. With this procedure, Dr. Walker makes an incision in the gum line and removes a small amount of nearby jawbone to reveal more of a tooth’s crown. This then allows him to create a more balanced smile and/or fix any problems that were previously hidden.
Comprehensive Treatment Plans
Often, patients struggling with periodontal disease are also dealing with other oral health issues at the same time, whether it’s decayed, cracked, or missing teeth. Working closely with a patient’s general dentist, Dr. Walker can put together a comprehensive treatment plan to address all issues at once and prevent them from popping up again. Each plan is completely personalized based on the needs of a patient and can easily be adjusted to suit someone’s particular goals.
Platelet-Rich Plasma
After undergoing a surgical procedure on the gums, a small amount of healing time is always necessary. Platelet-rich plasma serves to make the recovery period much shorter for our patients. Derived from a patient’s own blood, PRP is applied to a treatment site along with a collagen framework to speed up the growth of new healthy tissue and prevent infection. It has also been shown to reduce post-treatment pain and swelling, helping a patient’s mouth feel completely normal days or weeks ahead of schedule.