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Care / Precision / Confidence / Glenrothes / Fife /
Treatment
Hygiene and gum health
Treating bleeding gums and gum disease. What a hygiene appointment involves, what it costs, and what treatment can and cannot put right.
What it costs here£75 what that covers
GDHTreatment
01
In short
Hygiene and gum health in short
Treating bleeding gums and gum disease, above and below the gumline.
From £75 privately. Also available on the NHS.
Gum disease can be stopped, but bone already lost does not come back.
Most of the result comes from what you do at home between visits.
Visits
One to four, depending on how much there is to do
How long it takes
Thirty to sixty minutes each
Anaesthetic
Local, for cleaning below the gumline
How long it lasts
Needs repeating, usually every three to six months
Can it be undone
Bleeding can settle. Lost bone does not return.
On the NHS
On the NHS, £35.52 to £142.08 a course
02
Treatment
What it is
A sticky film of bacteria builds up on your teeth every day. Dentists call it plaque. Brushing removes most of it. What is left behind hardens within a couple of days into tartar, a chalky deposit that no toothbrush will shift.
Tartar sits at the gumline and under it. The bacteria on it irritate the gum. The gum goes red and puffy and bleeds when you brush. That stage is gum inflammation (gingivitis). It is reversible. Clean the tartar off, keep the area clean at home, and the gum settles down again.
If it carries on, the damage moves deeper. The bone that holds your teeth in starts to shrink away. That stage is gum disease (periodontitis). The gum comes away from the tooth and forms a pocket, which is even harder to clean. Teeth can loosen, drift apart or fall out.
Here is the part that matters most. Bone lost to gum disease (periodontitis) does not grow back. Treatment stops the loss getting worse. It does not undo what has already gone. Hygiene care is how we hold the line.
03
Treatment
Is this right for me?
Bleeding gums are not normal. They are not a sign you brushed too hard. Healthy gums do not bleed when you clean them, in the same way that healthy skin does not bleed when you wash it.
Signs worth an appointment:
Blood in the sink, on the brush, or on an apple you have bitten into
Gums that look red, shiny or swollen along the edge
A bad taste that keeps coming back after you clean
Breath that does not improve however much you brush
Gums that seem to be shrinking back, so teeth look longer
Gaps opening up between teeth that used to sit together
Teeth that feel loose, or that have moved
Food packing into the same spot every time you eat
Almost everyone benefits from having tartar removed and their gums checked. How often depends on how quickly you build it up, which varies a lot between people.
If you smoke, take this section seriously. Smoking narrows the small blood vessels in the gum, so the bleeding that warns other people is often missing. Gum disease (periodontitis) tends to be further along by the time it is found.
Doing nothing is a fair choice for gum inflammation (gingivitis) if you would rather fix it yourself at home first. Give it a few weeks of proper cleaning between the teeth and see whether the bleeding stops. If it does not, come in. Doing nothing about gum disease (periodontitis) is a different matter, because the bone keeps going.
04
Treatment
What happens, step by step
A routine hygiene appointment here usually takes about half an hour.
We start by looking at the gums properly. We run a small blunt probe, marked like a ruler, around each tooth. It measures how deep the gum sits against the tooth in millimetres, and where it bleeds. That gives us a chart, and it is how we tell gum inflammation (gingivitis) from gum disease (periodontitis). We may take X-rays to see the bone level.
Then we clean:
We remove tartar from above the gumline with a fine vibrating tip and a water spray, and with hand instruments where they work better.
We clean under the gumline where the deposits reach. You feel pressure, scraping and cold water rather than sharpness.
We polish the teeth with a soft cup and paste. This lifts staining from tea, coffee, red wine and tobacco.
We go through what you do at home, and what needs to change.
That last part takes real time and it is not a lecture. It is usually specific and small: the angle you hold the brush at, the size of interdental brush that actually fits your gaps, the two teeth at the back you keep missing.
If you have gum disease (periodontitis) with deep pockets, one appointment is not enough. Cleaning the root surfaces below the gum is slower, and we normally numb the area first. That work is usually split across two or more visits, taking one part of the mouth at a time.
We then leave it six to twelve weeks and measure again. Gums need that long to respond. The second set of measurements tells us the truth about whether the treatment is working, and we will show them to you either way.
Afterwards your gums may be tender for a few days and may bleed a little more at first. Teeth can be sensitive to cold. Warm salty mouthwashes help, and you should keep brushing even where it feels sore.
05
Treatment
What it costs
Professional hygiene care is from £75.
That covers checking and charting your gums, removing tartar from above and below the gumline, polishing, and the time we spend on what you do at home. The price rises with how much there is to remove, which mostly comes down to how long it has been.
If your gums need more than one appointment, we tell you how many and what the total will be before we start any of it. You will not find out halfway through.
Treatment for gum disease is also available on the NHS. A course of NHS gum disease treatment costs between £35.52 and £142.08 before any exemption. NHS examinations are free for everyone in Scotland.
NHS charges are set by the Scottish Government, not by us, and they are the same at every NHS practice in Scotland. Patients who pay, pay 80% of the cost of each item, up to £384 for a course of treatment. Around four in ten people pay nothing at all, including everyone under 26, anyone pregnant or within 12 months of giving birth, and anyone with a certificated income or benefits exemption.
06
Treatment
What could go wrong
Cleaning teeth sounds harmless. Things can still go wrong, and some of what follows changes how your mouth looks.
Sensitivity afterwards. Cold drinks and cold air can sting for a few days, and sometimes for a few weeks. Sensitive toothpaste, used like an ointment on the sore spot, usually helps. For a small number of people it does not fully settle.
Your gums may shrink back. Swollen gum sits high and hides the damage under it. Once the inflammation goes, the gum drops to where the bone actually is. Teeth then look longer, dark gaps can open between them, and food starts to catch. We did not cause that loss, but the treatment is what makes it visible, and you should know before rather than after.
It does not put back what has gone. Bone and gum lost to gum disease (periodontitis) do not grow back. Teeth that are already loose usually stay loose. What treatment buys you is stopping it, or slowing it.
It may not work. Most of the outcome comes from daily cleaning at home, not from the half hour in the chair. If nothing changes at home, the pockets refill within months and the money is wasted. We would rather say that now than at your review.
Some teeth are still lost. Where too much bone has gone, no amount of cleaning holds the tooth. Then the conversation moves to taking it out and what replaces it.
A loose filling or crown edge can come away. The instruments can dislodge something already failing. We will tell you if that happens and what it needs.
Numbness after deeper cleaning. If we use a local anaesthetic, your lip and tongue stay numb for two to four hours. Take care with hot drinks.
The link with other illness is real but not proven to be cause and effect. People with gum disease (periodontitis) are more likely to have heart disease, and the disease is harder to control if you have diabetes. Researchers have not shown that treating gums prevents heart attacks. We will not claim that it does.
Smoking changes what is achievable. Gum treatment works less well for smokers, and the gain is smaller. It is still worth doing.
If your gums are past what we can manage here, we will say so and arrange a referral elsewhere rather than keep cleaning teeth that need something more.
07
Treatment
Who does this here
Principal dentist
Registered name
Tien-Yu Chang
GDC number
296929
Qualification
Grado en Odontología, University CEU San Pablo, 2021
Qualified in
Spain
Associate dentist
Registered name
Li Yang Yeh
GDC number
306420
Qualification
Grado en Odontología, University CEU San Pablo, 2021
Qualified in
Spain
Associate dentist
GDC number
329275
Qualification
Grado en Odontología, University CEU San Pablo, 2025
Qualified in
Spain
Associate dentist
Registered name
Chen Liu
GDC number
331071
Qualification
Dr Med Dent, Semmelweis University, 2025
Qualified in
Hungary
Associate dentist
Registered name
Cheng-Tsung Hsu
GDC number
320342
Qualification
Grado en Odontología, CEU Cardenal Herrera University, 2024
Qualified in
Spain
08
Useful answers
Questions people ask
01My gums only bleed a bit. Is that really a problem?
Yes. Bleeding is the gum telling you there is infection at that spot. A little bleeding in one place is an early sign, and early is the good time to deal with it.
Most people brush harder or avoid the area, and it gets worse. The area needs cleaning more thoroughly, not less. If the bleeding is still there after two weeks of cleaning between the teeth daily, book an appointment.
02Will it hurt?
A routine clean is not usually sore. You feel vibration, scraping, cold water and pressure. Sensitive teeth and inflamed gums make it less comfortable, so tell us and we will slow down or numb the area.
For deeper cleaning under the gum we normally use a local anaesthetic. Afterwards the gums are often tender for two or three days.
03How often should I come?
Six to twelve months suits most people. If you have had gum disease (periodontitis) treated, three or four months is more usual, because the pockets that are left need keeping under control.
We will tell you what we think your interval should be and why. It is based on how fast you build up tartar and how your gums look, not on a standard rule.
04Will my gums grow back?
No. Gum and bone lost to gum disease (periodontitis) do not regrow, and there is no treatment we can offer that rebuilds them. Gum inflammation (gingivitis) is different, and gums at that stage do recover fully.
This is why we push so hard on catching it early. Everything after that point is about keeping what you still have.
05Will my teeth look whiter?
Polishing removes surface staining from tea, coffee, red wine and tobacco, so teeth often look brighter afterwards. What you are seeing is your own tooth colour with the stain taken off.
It does not change the colour of the tooth itself. That is a separate treatment and a separate conversation.
06What should I actually be doing at home?
Brush twice a day for two minutes with a fluoride toothpaste, and spit rather than rinse afterwards so the fluoride stays put. Clean between your teeth once a day.
Interdental brushes clean better than floss in most gaps, but they have to be the right size, and the size differs around the mouth. We will fit you for them and show you the angle. This is the part that decides your result.
07Can I have gum treatment on the NHS?
Yes. A course of NHS gum disease treatment costs between £35.52 and £142.08 before any exemption, and examinations are free for everyone in Scotland.
Those charges are set by the Scottish Government, not by us. We will tell you what is available to you on the NHS and what the private option adds, so you can compare them properly.
08What happens if I leave it?
Gum disease (periodontitis) usually does not hurt, which is why it is missed. It works slowly, over years, and by the time a tooth feels loose a lot of bone has already gone.
Left alone it tends to end in teeth being lost, often several, and replacing them costs far more than treating the gums would have. Bad breath and a bad taste come along the way.
09Do I see a dentist or a hygienist?
Hygiene care here is carried out by the dentists listed on this page. It is the same dentist who examines your mouth, charts your gums and does the cleaning, so nothing gets passed between people.
09
Treatment
Next step
If your gums bleed when you brush, book an appointment. You do not need to wait for your next check-up, and you do not need to be in pain to be seen.
We will chart your gums first, so you find out which stage you are actually at before anyone talks about treatment. It is often better news than people expect.
Call us to arrange it, or send a callback request and we will ring you.
Or call us on 01592 348674 if you would rather talk it through first.
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Glenrothes Dental House2 Huntsmans Court
Glenrothes, Fife
KY7 6SX
Glenrothes, Fife
KY7 6SX