LANAP – Laser Assisted New Attachment Procedure

The last thing you want during your trip to the dentist is tooth loss. Brushing and gargling faithfully are good steps to take, but sometimes more is needed if you have periodontal disease. This is why regular dental checkups are important, and more and more people are realizing the importance of oral health care. As with other areas of health, the dental industry continues to use new technology to prevent tooth loss and improve gums health. Laser procedures continue to provide solutions with minimal surgical invasion. LANAP is a new option in the dental industry to treat gum disease.

LANAP, laser assisted new attachment procedure, is used to reattach the gum to the root of a tooth. It uses some traditional gum surgery methods and combines it with laser dentistry. With the use of laser dentistry, patients experience less pain and recovery time is not as lengthy. LANAP gives patients an opportunity to not only save their gum tissue, but can stimulate the bone to grow. Before this new technique, precious gum was removed in treating the disease. With almost all your gum being saved during this procedure, the likelihood of tooth loss is minimal. Another bonus of the LANAP procedure is that the bone structure does not suffer either, but can actually be restored.

LANAP treatment uses a specific wavelength of light in the form of a laser. This light energy is targeted to the diseased gum tissue and removes it while leaving the healthy gum tissue unharmed. Instead of being an invasive surgery, this is a restorative procedure because patients do not lose gum tissue capacity and the bone is restored. This puts less stress on the mouth and on the patient after surgery.

The benefits of LANAP are numerous and impressive when compared to traditional gum disease procedures. A major benefit is that LANAP is a less invasive process on the patient's mouth. Traditionally, this procedure was lengthy, involving multiple one-hour oral surgeries scheduled over many visits. Each session was often painful for days after the procedure. The LANAP is performed only twice for 2 hours each with standard follow-up visits. With LANAP, treatment is almost pain free and results in only minor after-surgery discomfort.

A LANAP procedure is less than the cost of a dental implant and may be covered by your insurance plan. Learn more about this breakthrough method from the Periodontist, Dr. James Matia, at Great Lakes Dental Arts and see if LANAP is right for you.