Bacterial Testing 

As part of our Health Screening and Prevention Protocol, we may recommend Bacterial DNA testing to enable us to give you the most up-to-date, evidence based treatment options for treating periodontal (gum) disease. Gum disease is also linked to other serious diseases such as cardiac disease, and so we are committed to fighting this disease with all the latest technology and best practice available. 

There are large amounts of bacteria naturally occurring in the mouth. Most of these are harmless but there a few species of bacteria that can produce toxins that attack the gum surrounding the tooth. Scientists have recently identified groups of particularly aggressive bacteria which can be tested for and if appropriate, targeted with specific antibiotics. Traditional hygiene therapy will not be as effective if these particular bacteria are present. If they are wiped out with targeted antibiotic therapy, the cleaning process and the immune system have an increased chance of being effective and halting the disease progression. 

Periodontal disease is a complex progressive, disease and if left untreated it will progress painlessly until the tooth or teeth are lost.