Akron Periodontics & Dental Implantology

Gum specialists tend to meet patients at two particular moments: when a hygienist finally says the pockets are deeper than cleaning alone can manage, and when a tooth has been lost and something needs to fill the gap. That is the flow into this Fairlawn practice, where Dr. Mark S. Obernesser, DDS, MMSc and Dr. Khawla Aljohani, DDS, MSD work as periodontists, handling the cases Summit County general dentists send out rather than treat in their own chairs. The scope is deliberately narrow — scaling and root planing, surgical and non-surgical gum disease treatment, gum grafting, crown lengthening, bone grafting and implant placement. Your own dentist keeps the fillings, crowns and cleanings.

Gum grafting is the procedure most people arrive knowing least about. Recession exposes the root surface, which has no enamel, so it is softer, more sensitive to cold and far more prone to decay than the crown of the tooth; left alone, it keeps creeping. A graft rebuilds that missing tissue. Traditionally, a thin layer of connective tissue is taken from beneath the surface of your palate and tucked under the gum at the recession site, where it takes on a new blood supply over the following weeks. Donor tissue can be used instead when several teeth need covering and taking that much from the palate would be unpleasant. Stitches come out around ten days later, the graft blends in over a few months, and the root is protected again. Recovery mostly means soft food and leaving the site alone — no brushing across it until you are told otherwise.

The office is in Suite 200 at 484 South Miller Road, just off the West Market Street corridor in Fairlawn near Summit Mall, easily reached from Bath, Copley, Montrose and West Akron.

Be realistic about what treatment achieves. Periodontal disease is controlled rather than cured, and bone already lost does not regenerate on its own; the goal is to halt progression and keep teeth. That means maintenance cleanings every three or four months, usually alternating between here and your general dentist. Hours are Monday through Thursday, closing at half past four and earlier on Thursday, with no Friday or weekend cover.