Dental Implants

The treatment and management of periodontal disease is complex, involving a wide variety of procedures. Until recently, the goal of most periodontal treatment was to preserve the bone supporting the teeth, and to prevent/retard additional bone loss from occurring. The idea was that if the bone levels could be maintained, then the teeth could be preserved. Dentists always wished they could create "new" teeth whenever one was lost, but for generations, this proved to be an elusive dream.

Today, that dream of replacing missing teeth with a practical, predictable substitute has become an everyday reality: dental implants. Dental implants have become a mainstay of periodontal treatment since the mid-1980’s at Park Avenue Periodontal Associates. Now with the aid of our team of surgical experts, more people than ever can have dental implants.

But dental implants and growing bone are not all we do at Park Avenue Periodontal Associates.

We treat periodontal disease.

We utilize well-established procedures to treat periodontal disease. These include scaling and root planing, occlusal therapy, and flap surgery…when needed.

Scaling and root planing is a non-surgical procedure that removes the plaque and calculus (tartar) from the root surfaces, both above and from within the periodontal pockets. This is the most basic procedure performed to treat periodontal disease. Often, after a series of sessions during which scaling and root planing have been performed, red, swollen, and bleeding gums, become more pink and firm. Bleeding is reduced or eliminated. When this happens, it is easier to practice plaque control measures, and it helps retard the disease process.

After assessing the results from scaling and root planing, it may be necessary to recommend additional treatment to help reduce deep, lasting pockets. This is necessary in order to create a more permanent, healthier environment around the teeth. This can be accomplished with deeper scaling sessions using local anesthetics, or it may be done more definitively, by surgical means. During periodontal surgery, the doctor has an opportunity to not only see remnants of calculus on the roots, but reshape irregular bone patterns in order to achieve an optimal healing result that leaves the patient with shallower pockets. Shallower pockets are easier to maintain both for the patient and the dental professionals who clean their teeth and treat their gums at periodic intervals.

During periodontal surgery, many decisions are made by the operating surgeon that can help improve the local environment around the teeth. A variety of techniques are available to regenerate lost periodontal tissues, both hard (bone) and soft (gum). With respect to bone, it may sound like it’s easy to grow as much as we need. However, that’s not the case. Bone grafts are predictable only in specific instances. Speak with your dentist to learn if this is a technique that could help you.

Many of these regenerative techniques - growing bone and gum tissue - involve the use of so-called barrier membranes. There are many types of guided tissue membranes available to clinicians that may influence the healing of specific problem areas. The choice of when to use them and what type to use, should be made by the dentist treating you. What’s important to know is that these membranes keep unwanted cells out of the area being grafted, and encourage desirable cells to form new tissues.

Besides scaling and root planing and a host of surgical procedures, the following list describes some of the additional routine services PAPA provides:

1. The bite. We analyze the occlusion and make adjustments when needed.
2. Make nightguards.
3. Soft tissue lesions. We perform cancer inspections and remove unwanted lesions from the soft tissues of the mouth, including the lips and cheeks.
4. Place dental implants - both single and multiple.
5. Construct and regenerate missing bone, including sinus grafts, chin grafts, iliac crest grafts from the hip, mandibular nerve transposition, and more.
6. Ridge augmentations - to widen areas that have shrunk as a result of teeth being removed. This is done to enhance the esthetics of fixed bridges and make the bone wide enough to have implants placed.
7. Extract teeth.
8. Perform tooth cleanings.

Park Avenue Periodontal Associates (PAPA) is made up of five periodontists and five hygienists, trained to treat and save your teeth.

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Park Avenue Periodontal Associates
532 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10021
Telephone (212) 838-0940   Fax (212) 355-4784
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