Kathy: Laser gum therapy is a great alternative for people that have been told they need gum surgery. It does not remove your tissue. We do not believe in removing tissue because it doesn't grow back. We do believe in healing the tissue by decontamination. And it's very non-invasive. The laser tip goes between the tooth and the gum tissue and can decontaminate, actually, four millimeters past the point, in addition to removing a one to three cell layer of infected tissue where most of the bacteria is. By doing that, we can see tissue reattachment a half a millimeter to one millimeter per week.
Dr. Peter Hellwig: The old way of doing it was to cut off the infected tissue and then allow the healing process, which was slower and not as effective and aesthetic as what we now do.
Kathy: Our goal is to get tissue reattachment, because when the body is healthy and there's no infection, the body will heal itself. It will come back. We know that, we see it. And that's our goal because when we can get you back up to a healthy level where you can maintain it yourself, again, that's our goal, a lifetime goal of health.
Dr. Peter Hellwig: So we've improved the way the gum tissue looks, the way the gum tissue heals, and it saves the patient money.