PERIODONTIS

Periodontal disease is a disease that affects the supporting tissues of the teeth: gums, periodontal ligament, root cement and alveolar bone. In ordinary speech, the analogue term "pyorhea", which has long been abandoned in the medical field, is sometimes still used. There are different forms of periodontal disease that differ in causes, scope and severity. Usually the initial condition of this pathology is gingivitis, which then leads to periodontitis.
Periodontitis turns out to be a real infection of the periodontal tissue or all supporting structures of the teeth such as bone socket, ligament and gums. This type of pathology can cause the removal of all surrounding tissues from the teeth to, in the most severe cases, mobility and loss of teeth. Symptoms can be manifested by abscesses, bleeding, pus and the formation of "periodontal pockets" where bacteria that exacerbate the disease nest, and sometimes can cause "bad breath".
What are the causes?
These are inflammatory diseases of bacterial etiology that mainly affect predisposed subjects; in these patients, if you do not have excellent oral hygiene, the accumulation of bacterial plaque can attack periodontal tissues, damage them and thus weaken the support of the dental element. It should be borne in mind that in the presence of crammed teeth, since brush cleaning is less effective, it is possible to meet the formation of tartar above and podgingiva more easily.
Furthermore, bad habits, such as smoking, can worsen the clinical picture., some immune polyarthritis, radium and chemotherapy, etc.) accelerate the progression of this pathology.
What is meant by periodontal probing?
 It is used to diagnose and quantify the loss of supporting tissue of teeth caused by bacteria and to detect the presence of infectious and inflammatory manifestations of the same, typical of periodontal disease (bleeding, pus).
It is performed with a handmillimeter instrument (periodontal probe) that is designed to slide around the entire perimeter of each dental element. This clinical examination ends with determining the degree of mobility of each tooth. Therefore, "periodontal probing" is useful for diagnosing images of periodontitis of varying severity.
Can periodontal disease be associated with other diseases?
Periodontal disease is not always associated with other pathologies, but it has been observed that it is often correlated with lesions of blood vessels caused by atherosclerosis, and therefore with consequent cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, it has been found that in people with diabetes periodontitis is likely to contribute to achieving better glycemic control and that periodontal disease plays a nonspecific role in pregnancy-related negative events (e.g., preterm birth and/or birth of children with lower body mass).