Missing teeth can be embarrassing, causing people to hide their smile and lose their self-esteem. The space created by missing teeth can cause other teeth to shift out of place, making it difficult for people to speak or eat correctly. Dr. Ashley Seals, DDS, MS and the staff at Premium Periodontics are sensitive to the hardship a missing tooth can create. We provide dental implants so that our patients can regain their self-confidence, improve their health, and approach life boldly.

When a tooth is causing extreme pain, discomfort, or infection, the tooth may be failing or damaged past repair and might require a dentist to extract the tooth. An extraction may be performed in an emergency following a trauma or injury or the extraction may be planned to prevent a problem, such as having wisdom teeth or to make room for tooth movement for patients with braces. 

About 65 million adults over age 30 or roughly half of the US population suffers from periodontal or gum disease.  This is a serious condition that can lead to eventual bone and tooth loss. At Premium Periodontics, we recommend that you visit our dental office so that we can assess if you suffer from gum disease. Scaling and root planing or a deep cleaning is generally the first step in treating gum disease. We remove plaque and tartar below the gum line in order to get rid of the bacteria that causes bone loss, bad breath, bleeding, and gum recession. Our dental office has a wide variety of relaxation techniques to ensure that you are as comfortable as possible during scaling and root planing.

When gum recession occurs, the body loses a natural defense against both bacterial penetration and trauma. In some cases, gum reconstruction using grafting techniques is an option.

When there is only minor recession, some healthy gingiva often remains and protects the tooth, so that no treatment other than modifying home care practices is necessary. However, when recession reaches the mucosa, the first line of defense against bacterial penetration is lost.

Crown lengthening is usually performed to improve the health of the gum tissue, prepare the mouth for a procedure such as a crown, or correct a “gummy smile”. A “gummy smile” is used to describe an instance where teeth are covered with excess gum tissue resulting in a less esthetically-pleasing smile. The procedure involves reshaping or recontouring the gum tissue and bone around the tooth in question to create a new gum-to–tooth relationship. Crown lengthening can be performed on a single tooth, many teeth, or the entire gum line.

There are a variety of cosmetic procedures for the gums, from replacing missing teeth to improving short teeth and correcting gum recession.

If you are concerned because your teeth appear short, you may be a candidate for esthetic crown lengthening. Although your teeth appear short, they may actually be the proper length but covered with too much gum tissue. We can correct this by performing the periodontal plastic surgery procedure known as esthetic crown lengthening. During this procedure, excess gum and bone tissue are reshaped to expose more of the natural tooth. This can be done to more than one tooth, to even your gum line, and to create a beautiful smile.

Sinus bone augmentation is used to add bone into your maxillary sinus in order to gain enough bone height for future dental implant placement. This procedure can correct insufficient bone height in your upper jaw and make it possible to place dental implants in the upper back jaw where implants previously were not possible. Sinus bone augmentation has become a common procedure as more people are getting dental implants to replace missing teeth or removable dentures.

When patients suffer with periodontal disease they develop gum tissue pockets that cause the gums to detach from the teeth. Periodontal pockets trap bacteria which infects the gums and may cause bone loss, bad breath, bleeding, pain, and eventual tooth loss.  .

A pocket reduction is designed to remove the areas where bacteria collect. This occurs when the supportive gum tissue around the teeth becomes loose, forming pockets of infection around the base of the teeth.  Pocket reduction surgery reduces the excess pocket tissue to clean out existing infection and prevent the collection of more harmful bacteria. After the pockets are reduced, we then suture the gums so they fit more tightly around the teeth. This procedure can provide excellent results and decrease the re-occurrence of periodontal infection.