Gum disease — periodontal disease — is a bacterial infection of the tissue and bone holding your teeth in place, and it is the leading cause of tooth loss in adults. At My Bloomingdale Dentist we measure the pockets around every tooth, stage what we find, and treat it with scaling and root planing followed by periodontal maintenance. Caught at the gingivitis stage it is reversible. Once bone is lost it is manageable but not undoable, which is why the measuring visit matters more than anything else on this page.
Where you are on this list decides everything about the treatment.
| Stage | What we measure | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Healthy | Pockets 1–3mm, no bleeding | Regular cleanings and exams keep it there. |
| Gingivitis | Pockets up to 4mm, gums bleed when brushed | Inflammation only, no bone lost yet. Fully reversible with a professional clean and better home care. |
| Early periodontitis | Pockets 4–5mm, early bone loss on X-ray | The infection has moved below the gum line. Scaling and root planing is the treatment. |
| Moderate to advanced | Pockets 6mm+, visible bone loss, teeth loosening | Manageable, not reversible. Goal shifts to stopping the loss and keeping the teeth you have. |
Bleeding when you brush is not something to push through. It is the earliest signal there is, and it is the one stage where the damage undoes itself completely.
Matched to the stage, not sold as a package.
The deep clean. Plaque and hardened tartar are removed from below the gum line and the root surfaces are smoothed so the tissue can reattach instead of harbouring bacteria. Done with the area fully numbed, usually across two visits.
At the earliest stage a thorough professional clean plus a real conversation about home technique is genuinely enough. No deep cleaning needed.
Once you have been treated, the recall interval shifts from six months to three or four. This is the part that decides whether it stays stable, and it is not the same appointment as a routine cleaning.
Pocket depths are charted every visit and compared against last time. Numbers moving the wrong way get caught early rather than at the point teeth start moving.
Smoking, uncontrolled diabetes, grinding and a bite that overloads certain teeth all drive this. Treating the gums without addressing those is treating a symptom.
If bone loss has gone too far, we talk about replacement honestly — a dental implant needs healthy gums around it, so gum treatment comes first either way.
Nobody on the first page of Google publishes this. Here is how it works.
Scaling and root planing is priced per quadrant of the mouth, so the cost tracks how much of your mouth is actually affected — someone needing two quadrants pays roughly half of someone needing four. You get the full number in writing after we chart the pockets, before anything is scheduled.
Most dental insurance covers periodontal treatment at a decent level because insurers know it is far cheaper than replacing teeth. We check your benefits before treatment rather than after, and financing is available.
New to the practice? The $99 new-patient exam includes the X-rays and charting needed to tell you exactly what stage you are at — which is worth doing even if you decide to have the treatment elsewhere.
Periodontal disease is painless for most of its course. People generally notice it when teeth start moving, and by then bone is already gone. The tissue that holds a tooth in does not grow back.
There is also a well-documented association between gum disease and cardiovascular disease, diabetes control and pregnancy outcomes. Treating your gums is not only about your teeth.
Plenty of people put off coming in because they already know the answer will be "you should have come sooner." We are not interested in that conversation. Gum disease is extremely common, it is often genetic as much as behavioural, and the only thing that matters is where you are today and how we stop it getting worse.
We treat periodontal patients from Addison, Itasca, Bartlett, Roselle and Carol Stream, plus Glendale Heights, Wood Dale, Hanover Park and Medinah.
Read what patients say about being treated without a lecture.
Charting, treatment and maintenance in one office. See everything the practice does on the services page.
At the gingivitis stage, completely. That is inflammation without bone loss, and a professional clean plus better home care returns the gums to health. Once it has progressed to periodontitis and bone has been lost, it becomes manageable rather than reversible — we can stop it advancing and keep the teeth stable, but the bone that supported them does not grow back. That difference is why bleeding gums are worth acting on immediately.
It is the deep clean that treats periodontal disease. Plaque and hardened tartar are removed from below the gum line, and the root surfaces are smoothed so gum tissue can reattach rather than leaving a pocket for bacteria to live in. The area is fully numbed and it is usually done across two visits, half the mouth at a time. It is not the same as a routine cleaning and it is not an upsell of one.
Scaling and root planing is priced per quadrant, so the cost follows how much of your mouth is affected — two quadrants is roughly half the cost of four. You get the exact figure in writing once we have charted the pockets, before anything is scheduled. Most dental insurance covers periodontal treatment at a reasonable level, and we check your benefits before treatment starts.
Because after periodontal treatment the appointment changes. Periodontal maintenance is a different procedure from a routine cleaning — it goes below the gum line and includes re-charting your pocket depths. The bacteria repopulate a treated pocket in roughly twelve weeks, which is where the interval comes from. Stretching it back to six months is the single most common reason treated gum disease comes back.
Yes. Bleeding is the earliest reliable sign of gum disease and periodontal disease is painless through most of its course — that is exactly what makes it dangerous. Healthy gums do not bleed when you brush or floss properly. Most people first notice something is wrong when teeth start to loosen or shift, and by that point bone has already been lost.
It is the leading cause of tooth loss in adults. The disease destroys the bone and ligament that hold a tooth in its socket, so the tooth loosens and eventually cannot be kept. Treated early it almost never gets that far, which is the whole argument for charting pockets at every visit rather than only when something feels wrong.
There is well-documented association between periodontal disease and cardiovascular disease, diabetes control and pregnancy outcomes. The relationship with diabetes runs both ways — poorly controlled blood sugar worsens gum disease and active gum infection makes blood sugar harder to control. If you are diabetic, tell us, because it changes how closely we monitor you.
No. Gum disease is extremely common and susceptibility to it is substantially genetic, not simply a matter of effort. We are only interested in where you are today and what stops it getting worse. The first visit is charting and X-rays so you know your actual stage — no judgment attached to the number.
Book a gum evaluation with Dr. Kim. We chart every pocket, tell you exactly what stage you are at, and price the treatment before anything is scheduled.
Stable gums start with regular cleanings and exams. If gum disease has already cost you a tooth, dental implants can replace it once the tissue is healthy — and if several teeth are involved, that conversation usually becomes a full mouth restoration plan.