Gum Disease should be a thing of the past says a dentist from SE1 in London. It is so easily prevented by a simple regime of controlled and habitual oral care and hygiene. Every dentist has an oral hygiene nurse and when we go to have our 6 monthly check up we should talk to them. Preventative dentistry is as important as repairing and curing gum disease, which by the way is incurable. Most people who have constant and depleting gum disease are exasperating the condition by not brushing their teeth properly or for long enough. Your teeth should be cleaned after every meal, but in the absence of the opportunity to do that you should clean your teeth when you get up and go to bed. Rinsing with a quality mouthwash will also help, but it isn’t a `be all and end all` of cleaning the gums and teeth. Flossing is another much missed opportunity to keep bacteria at bay, especially as most gum diseases are caused by food residue lodged in between the teeth. Once a gum disease like Gingivitis takes a hold there is no cure, the best we can hope for is a delay in the disappearance of the gums. Even slight gum disease is hard to eliminate once it occurs and again this is easily prevented by a good and regular regime. Bad breath is a sign of lodged food in between the teeth, and that in itself should sound the alarm bells about gum disease. If you can’t manage to brush your teeth after every meal, then carrying some floss sticks around is the next best thing, they have a floss hoop at the top and a pick point at the other end, this alone will go a long way to keeping bad bacteria away from the gums.

About 7 per cent of men and 14 per cent of women suffer from a condition known as a gummy smile, which is an excess of gum tissue making their teeth appear too short. The condition is not serious and has no real medicinal disadvantage but it can be responsible for a loss of confidence and low self esteem due to embarrassment.

It is very quick and easy to fix a gummy smile using modern technology in a process called laser gum contouring. In the past gum contouring would have been carried out with a scalpel but using the heat of a laser is a much healthier and easier process to perform.

With a diode laser, the dentist can simply sculpt the desired gum line form the existing excess tissue making the gums and teeth look more natural and healthy together. The heat of the laser vaporises the excess gum tissue while simultaneously cauterising it, preventing blood loss. The heat of the laser also sterilises the tissue reducing the chances of post-procedural infection. It may sound a little unpleasant to burn tissue, but contouring is a relatively painless procedure and your London SE1 dentist can administer anaesthetic before treatment.

The surgery usually lasts between 15 minutes and two hours depending on the amount of tissue that needs to be removed, with recovery time obviously increasing depending on the extent of surgery. All gum tissue will usually be completely healed after four weeks. Once gum contouring is complete some patients also opt for porcelain veneers to complete a more thorough smile makeover but this is not usually necessary.