Periodontal diseases are a diverse group of disease processes that are the result of a bacterial infection which leads to erosion of jaw bone and eventually tooth loss. 

As the bacteria in your mouth accumulate and grow on tooth surfaces, your body responds by trying to fight the infection.  This process is known as inflammation and results in the gingival infection known as gingivitis.

With gingivitis, no jaw bone has yet been lost and with proper oral hygiene and profession dental care is for the most part reversible.

If left untreated, the infection gets worse and leads to the destruction of tooth supporting jaw bone and the disease known as periodontitis. 

Periodontal destruction can be measured in many ways.  The most common is the use of an instrument that measures the distance between the top of your gum and your bone level.  Once this measurement reaches as certain depth, we can assume that gingivitis has progressed to periodontitis.  Other hallmarks of periodontitis are bleeding and reddened gums.  The extent of periodontal destruction is also measured by radiographs or x-rays.  Using all of our determinants of disease severity, we will classify your mouth into one of 3 categories.

There are three main stages of periodontitis:

•     Mild
•     Moderate
•     Severe

If left untreated, periodontitis will lead to tooth loss. 

Most studies have shown that while most everyone is susceptible to some form of periodontitis, only 5-20% of the adult population is inflicted with severe forms of the disease.  In other words, not everyone has the same susceptibility to periodontitis.

Risk Factors include:

1. Genetics
2. Smoking
3. Lack of profession care
4. Anatomy of the teeth
5. Poor oral hygiene
6. aggressive infection
7. Diabetes
8. Osteoporosis
9. Medications
10. etc.