What Is Osseous Surgery and When Might I Need It?

Consider this: Two out of five adults in the United States have periodontitis, or gum disease. Playing this alarming stat out even further, gum disease is a leading cause of tooth loss among Americans.

So, it makes sense that you want to do what you can to stop gum disease from robbing you of your teeth, and osseous surgery can play a big role in these efforts.

To explain osseous surgery a little better, we turn to the experienced team of oral health experts here at Willow Glen Dental Specialists. In the following, we dive into what we accomplish with osseous, or pocket reduction, surgery, and when we might use it to hit the reset button on your dental health.

Gum disease — a progressive dental health problem

Gum disease starts innocently enough — bacteria in your mouth try to gain access to the hard tissues behind your gums. At first, your gums resist this bacterial assault, and the evidence of this is gingivitis, or minor swelling and redness around your gumline.

If you don’t have us address the gingivitis promptly, the bacteria can eventually weaken your gums and gain access beneath. Once bacteria get behind your gums, they can eat away at the hard and soft tissues and create pockets, where the bacteria multiply and continue their destructive progress.

Left unchecked, these bacteria can eventually eat away at the supportive structures that hold your teeth in place, and you’re left dealing with tooth loss.

Evicting bacteria from your gums

During the earlier stages of gum disease, we can manage the problem quite easily with regular and deep cleanings.

If the bacteria have set up shop in pockets behind your gums, then we need to get more aggressive with pocket reduction surgery, or osseous surgery.

During this procedure, which we perform right here in our office, we accomplish several objectives, including:

• Clearing away bacteria
• Reshaping the bone to eliminate the pocket
• Resealing your gums over your teeth

In short, osseous surgery is a useful tool for stopping moderate-to-severe gum disease from destroying your gums and teeth.

Not only do we stop the existing gum disease through osseous surgery, but we also set the stage for improved dental health by getting rid of areas where bacteria can gather down the road. It’s good to think of osseous surgery as a preventive tool that focuses on tooth and gum preservation.

So, if you’re dealing with gum disease that has reached up under your gums, where it has the potential to do significant damage, it’s time to figure out the next steps with our team. 

To determine whether osseous surgery will play a role in that, we invite you to contact our office in San Jose, California, at 408-478-9081. Or, you can request an appointment using our online form.