Stopping the inflammation before it takes the ground out from under your teeth.
Periodontitis is a bacterial inflammation of the tooth-supporting tissues, the gums and bone that anchor your teeth in the jaw. It usually progresses over years without hurting, and that's exactly what makes it treacherous: if you wait until you notice something, you've often waited too long.
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PeriodontitisGum DiseasePeriodontal Disease
Gums that bleed while brushing seem harmless to many people, almost normal. But healthy gums don't bleed: bleeding is usually the first, and often the only, signal that the tooth-supporting tissue has become inflamed, meaning the gums and bone that anchor your teeth in the jaw. In everyday language, this is often still called by its older name, "periodontal disease" or "gum disease", the same condition either way.
Periodontitis almost always progresses silently. It doesn't hurt for years while it keeps working in the background. If you wait until teeth loosen or shift, you've waited too long: by then, bone has already been lost that doesn't come back on its own. One check-up appointment is enough to get clarity.
Measuring the gum pockets, X-rays, assessing how far the process has progressed. We submit the application to your insurer for you.
We show you specifically what home care should look like for your exact situation, especially between the teeth.
Under local anaesthetic, we thoroughly clear the gum pockets of plaque and calculus, usually over two closely spaced appointments.
A few months later, we measure again to see where the gums have settled.
At set intervals, we keep the inflammation permanently under control.
The regulated periodontal treatment is a covered service: findings, the actual cleaning with hand and ultrasound instruments, and the two-year aftercare are all covered by public insurance. We submit the application for you.
Supplementary procedures can come in privately, such as laser treatment for deep pockets, air-polishing, or a microbiological germ test, each a standalone add-on that leaves your public-insurance entitlement untouched. Once the two-year aftercare ends, your care moves into regular professional cleaning, three to four times a year depending on severity, more frequently than with a healthy mouth. Care doesn't end there, it just changes form.
If private cost comes into it, you'll know beforehand. We tell you exactly where the covered service ends, and you decide without any pressure. For privately insured patients, the standard dental fee schedule applies anyway, and a transparent cost plan is provided here too.
If tooth replacement is already planned, a crown, a bridge, an implant, the periodontitis needs to be under control first: placing an implant into inflamed, deteriorating jawbone would mean building on poor ground. Periodontal treatment is then often the preliminary step that prepares the ground.
With very advanced bone loss, a single tooth can be so loose that it's no longer worth saving. In that case, extraction and later replacement is the more honest path, in service of the neighbouring teeth, which are better protected as a result. "Save before replace" doesn't mean "save at any cost", and we say that openly too.
Periodontal treatment first
Before a crown, bridge or implant is placed, the supporting tissue needs to be stable, otherwise you're building on poor ground. What comes after is under Fixed Tooth Replacement.
Extraction & replacement
With very advanced bone loss, a tooth is sometimes no longer worth saving. In that case, extraction and later replacement is the more honest path, more under our Tooth Replacement services.
Root canal treatment
In rare cases, inflammation inside a tooth coincides with periodontitis at the same tooth, in which case we plan both paths together. What root canal treatment covers is under Root Canal Treatment.
The supporting tissue is the foundation for everything else that happens to the tooth, getting it solid first helps every further restoration hold better.
Whether periodontal treatment is the right path for you or something else, we'll work that out together.
Zahngesundheit verstehen, Entscheidung leben.
After diagnosis, approval from your insurer usually takes about two weeks, occasionally up to four, and we submit that application for you. The actual cleaning then happens over two closely spaced appointments, usually the next day. A few months later, we review the result again. After that, aftercare begins, which runs for two years and then moves into regular check-ups.
No, healthy gums don't bleed while brushing. Bleeding is the most common, and often the only, early sign that the gums have become inflamed. No reason to panic, but reason enough to have it checked while it's still easy to treat.
In the sense of "fully back to how it was", no, the lost bone doesn't return through standard treatment. But the disease can be stopped and permanently kept under control, so the teeth are preserved. That's the realistic and genuinely good goal of this treatment.
Partly. Some of the looseness comes from swelling in the inflamed tissue, and once the inflammation subsides, the tooth firms up again. The part that comes from actual bone loss, though, stays. Where needed, splinting to the neighbouring teeth helps with stability and chewing comfort.
Because bacteria return to the pockets within months of cleaning. Aftercare catches that again and again. It's the part that long-term success actually hinges on. For the first two years, public insurance covers this aftercare as its own service; after that, regular check-ups and professional cleaning take over, several times a year instead of once. Care doesn't end there, it just changes form.
You don't have to, but it's the single most effective thing you can do yourself to help treatment succeed. Smoking is the strongest unfavourable factor, and it also dampens bleeding gums as an early warning sign, which often means the disease is noticed only late. If you don't quit, you'll still be treated, just with an honestly named, somewhat less favourable starting point.
