J. David Cross, DDS - Periodontist & Dental Implants

Periodontal treatment is priced by quadrant and by severity, which is why two people who both have gum disease can be quoted figures thousands of dollars apart. Deep cleaning below the gumline is usually reimbursed at a reasonable percentage by dental insurance. Surgical grafting to rebuild lost bone or cover recession is covered far less predictably, and implants often sit outside dental coverage entirely. A specialist consultation should end with you knowing which of those categories your case falls into, and that is the work J. David Cross, DDS does in Springfield.

Dr. Cross is a periodontist, and the practice is built around microsurgery: periodontal and implant procedures carried out under high magnification rather than by eye. The argument for working that way is mechanical rather than promotional. Magnification allows smaller incisions, much thinner suture material and gentler handling of tissue that is often less than a millimetre thick at its margin, and tissue that is handled less tends to heal with less scarring. Patients notice it most in grafting around visible front teeth, where the finished gumline either matches its neighbours or does not.

Patients seldom find a practice like this by searching; a general dentist points them toward it, and it helps to know how the two roles divide up. The periodontist treats the foundation, meaning gums and bone, and places implants; your general dentist keeps doing your cleanings, fillings and the crown that finishes an implant. A first appointment is examination and diagnosis, including periodontal charting that records pocket depth around every tooth. Those numbers, read against bone levels on radiographs, are what determine whether you need maintenance cleanings, non-surgical therapy or surgery.

Two problems account for most of the referrals. Recession is treated by moving tissue back over the exposed root, using either a graft of your own connective tissue taken from the palate or processed donor material, and that choice affects both how the site looks afterwards and how sore the first week is. Missing bone is treated by grafting a socket at the time of an extraction, or by rebuilding the ridge before an implant can go in, which adds months to a timeline rather than weeks. Ask which of the two your case needs before you plan around a date.

The office is at 2904 Greenbriar Drive on Springfield's west side, 62704. Most people are driving in for a handful of appointments spread across several months rather than dropping by, and a fair number come from outside the city, so the detail that earns its place is the 7 a.m. start Monday through Thursday. A surgical appointment can be finished before the working day has properly begun, instead of being wedged into the end of an afternoon when you are already tired. Chairs run to 4:30 p.m. on those four days, and Friday is a short morning that ends at 11 a.m.

One honest limitation: microsurgical technique improves how a site heals and how the result looks, but it does not change whether a badly compromised tooth is salvageable. Ask directly whether a doubtful tooth is worth treating or better extracted and replaced.