How Much Does Gum Disease Treatment Cost?
Watch this video to learn more about techniques used in periodontal disease treatment and what factors determine the overall cost.
The cost of the periodontal treatment or gum treatment varies depending on what you need. Obviously, the initial phase is like deep cleaning, and deep cleaning again, depends on who is doing it. It is done by your general dentists or it is done by specialists. But you know, it is called Periodontist, the guy who specializes in diagnosis and treatment of a gum disease.
But for deep cleaning, the way it works, we usually divide the mouth in four segments or what we call a quadrant. Sometimes a deep cleaning can be done in two sessions, sometimes a three session or four session, depending on the amount of the plaque and tartar and depending on how deep the pocket is. Again, pocket is a gap between the gum tissue and the tooth.
It is measured by periodontal probe. The deeper the pocket, the more advanced the disease is and more complicated treatment. So the cost of deep cleaning on average for each quadrant or each segment. You’re looking at about 300 to $400. Again, depends on whether general practitioner is doing it or a specialist doing it. But if you need a surgical treatment, depending on, again, what kind of surgery that the gum graft is, that bone graft or is there simply what we call an open debridement, opening the gum tissue to clean up the infection, to use some antibacterial agent.
Sometimes we use the antibiotic after the deep cleaning locally. Sometimes I’ve used betadine iodine or even bleach, because bleach and betadine both of them. No bacterial can resist survival because they are extremely potent antibacterial agents and will eliminate. The problem is, even when you totally eliminate bacteria within 24 hours, the area can get repopulated by bacteria.
That’s a problem with the periodontal disease. That’s the reason it’s rigid home care, proper brushing and flossing is very important to remove that bacterial plaque. Now, in addition, you need periodontal maintenance. People who are susceptible for periodontal disease in addition to proper home care, they need to see their dentist or periodontist sometimes every three months, sometimes every four months, to check the status of the gum disease to make sure the disease is under control.
You have to keep in mind there is no way that you can totally get rid of the gum disease. It’s like what we are doing is we are controlling the disease is like someone has a high blood pressure. There is no definitive treatment for high blood pressure. What we do, we control high blood pressure by medication, by exercise, proper diet, and so on and so forth. The same thing can be applied for periodontal disease. We are controlling the disease. We are controlling progression of a disease and the most important criteria or most important factor here is home care. Proper brushing and proper flossing. And again, some patient says, well, I brush ten times a day. I still my gums bleed.
Then how you brush is also important to concentrate around the gum line because if this is actually the gum line and these are the teeth, the disease will begin the right, the junction of the gum tissue and the tooth and the brush will clean outside and inside. But between you have to use the floss or other cleaning measures to remove the dental plaque, thereby preventing progression of the disease.