The St. Andrews office at 3527 Bush River Road is the practice's home base on the western side of Columbia, an easy run from the I-20 and I-26 corridors and from Irmo and Seven Oaks. Columbia Periodontal Associates fields four periodontists, Dr. Dustin C. Hedgpeth, Dr. Mark L. McEntire, Dr. Sohee K. Park and Dr. Roy L. Faulks III, each a Diplomate of the American Board of Periodontology. Three sister offices on Devine Street, Clemson Road and Old Chapin Road in Lexington widen the map considerably for anyone commuting across the Midlands.
Soft tissue grafting is a signature of a practice this size, and it addresses a problem people usually notice as sensitivity before they notice it as recession. When the band of tough, attached gum around a tooth thins, the root surface becomes exposed; roots carry no enamel, so they wear faster and register cold sharply. A graft takes tissue from the palate or uses a processed donor matrix, tucks it under the existing gum, and rebuilds that band. Coverage of the exposed root is often achievable but not guaranteed in every case: how far the recession has already progressed, and how much bone remains between the teeth, set the ceiling on what surgery can return.
The rest of the surgical range is the full periodontal one. Pocket reduction, guided bone regeneration, crown lengthening to expose enough tooth structure for a crown to grip, sinus lifts and ridge augmentation ahead of implants, extractions, frenectomy, biopsy, and exposure of teeth that have not erupted for orthodontic treatment. Laser periodontal therapy is available as an alternative to conventional flap surgery in suitable cases, and non-surgical scaling and root planing remains the starting point for most new periodontal patients.
Gum disease is managed rather than cured, which is the honest framing to start from. After active treatment, maintenance visits on a three- or four-month cycle exist because the bacterial population rebuilds on roughly that timetable, and skipping them is the single most common reason treated pockets come back. The Bush River office keeps weekday hours with an earlier close on Friday.