Dr. Thomas E Wright

THOMAS E. WRIGHT, III, DDS, INC.
Surgical Services
Dr. Wright's practice provides a variety of surgical services The practice is conservative in its treatment recommendations and often, nonsurgical solutions can be found. However, when there is no alternative and surgery is the best solution, Dr. Wright employs scientifically based procedures with state-of-the-art equipment. Beyond that, he adheres to sterilization protocols that exceed even OSHA requirements.
SURGICAL REPAIR OF PERIODONTAL DISEASE
When periodontal disease and bone loss have resulted in pockets around the teeth that are too deep for the patient to keep clean at home and even too deep for the dental hygienist to clean professionally, reparative procedures are fortunately available. Certainly, some damage is severe enough that the tooth or teeth can't be saved and must be removed. However, many are treatable if intervention is timely.
With the use of either resective or regenerative surgical procedures, the goal is to …definitively eliminate the bacteria and infected tissue below the gum line and then to make repairs that eliminate the deep bacterial harbors or pockets. As a result, the patient can maintain their periodontal health at home with good personal plaque control supplemented by regular professional cleanings.
OSSEOUS SURGERY
In the past, gum disease was treated by eliminating the gum pockets by trimming away the infected gum tissue and by recontouring the uneven bone tissue. Although this is still an effective way of treating gum disease, new and more sophisticated procedures are used routinely today. The problem with resective gum surgery was that it often left the patient looking "long in the tooth."
REGENERATIVE PERIODONTAL SURGERY
The thrust of modern periodontal surgical therapy is to eliminate pockets by eliminating the infection and then helping the body grow back the destroyed bone and gum support for the teeth. Among the many procedures available to accomplish this task are bone grafts and guided tissue regeneration.
BONE GRAFTING
In essence, bone grafts are materials that are used to fill the area where bone has been destroyed around teeth to serve as a scaffold. In this manner, the patients own bone is induced to grow into the graft or scaffold and regain support for the tooth. In most cases, Dr. Wright utilizes a synthetic bone grafting material to create this scaffolding and bone-stimulating effect.
GUIDED TISSUE & BONE REGENERATION
This surgical procedure regenerates the lost bone and gum in a fascinating way. By placing a barrier or membrane over the bone defect and under the gum, we can cajole the body into growing new bone. The barrier serves to give exclusive access in the site of bone repair to those cells that grow bone, and at the same time exclude those cells that don't.
Some of these barriers are bioabsorbable and some require removal. Other regenerative procedures involve the use of bioactive gels that induce the formation of new support for the teeth.
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