We want to discuss gum recession, the causes of gum recession, treatment for gum recession, and specifically the pinhole technique for gum recession.
What is gum recession?
Gum recession is when the gum moves away from the tooth, so more and more of the tooth starts to show. The tooth’s root begins to offer, which can lead to increased sensitivity to an unacceptable smile that’s not very attractive, and as the gum continues to recede, the tooth may be more subject to decay. As the gum recedes, the bone recedes, and you know if you continue to lose gum and you continue to lose bone, the tooth becomes at risk, and you risk losing the tooth. So there are lots of consequences to untreated gum recession.
If you have a gum recession, don’t hesitate to call us. We’ll take a look and see if we can help you. We probably can, and if you have any comments, make sure and let us know. We want to keep you informed. Keep you happy and healthy because if you have a healthy mouth, you will have a healthier body. Restore your smile and your health with the help of dr. Laleh and his associates. Visit silverhilldental.com to schedule your appointment today! If you have gum recession, there is a new treatment method available. Feel to call +1-416-234-8060. We would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Causes of Gum Recession
Let’s discuss about the causes of gum recession.
One of the primary causes is genetics. If you inherit, genetically, if you inherit thin gum tissue, that thin gum tissue is much more likely to be subject to recession than someone who has thicker gum tissue.
Another cause that we frequently see we would say probably 70 to 80% of the patients that we see for recession have had orthodontic treatment and sometimes that recession doesn’t occur till a month a year, two, five, ten-twenty years after the orthodontics, but very frequently the orthodontics affects the bone and the gum, that sets the stage for a recession in the future.
Another major cause is vigorous tooth brushing. Most of the patients that I see are very very conscious of how clean their mouth should be and they’re super-duper cleaners. They may brush their teeth three, four times a day, really scrub them. The more you scrub if you over scrub and if you over-clean you’re traumatizing that tissue and, causing it to be more likely to recede in the future.
Also, if you clench you grind your teeth that can be a factor. If you have fillings that can irritate the tissue and sometimes cause a recession.
We had a patient who had recession after she had used a whitening strip to whiten her teeth. Sometimes the chemicals from whitening materials, strong chemicals can cause gum recession. Those are some of the frequent causes that we see when we see gum recession.
Repairing Areas of Gum Recession
Traditionally, in repairing areas of gum recession periodontists take tissue from the palate. Now, that can be pretty uncomfortable, it can be pretty painful. Cutting gum tissue out of the roof of the mouth is what it is. Plus, you can only do a limited number of teeth because you can only really take out a certain amount of gum tissue from the palate at one time, of course, it’s limited. We use the pinhole technique exclusively, virtually exclusively. We never take tissue from the palate if we can avoid it, which is almost all the time. You really couldn’t treat the whole mouth by taking tissue from the palate anyway, because you couldn’t get enough tissue. We did the minimally invasive pinhole technique, usually with little or no pain or discomfort. It’s great it’s worked so well for us and my patients. Some of them have been through previous treatment that hasn’t worked that it maybe have failed, and then we can very often help them and treat those areas effectively with minimal discomfort and maximum effectiveness. It’s a great technique, great procedure.
Gum recession - Treatment of Gingival Retraction
Sometimes a lack of attached gingiva may lead to gum recession. This can lead to problems of sensitivity and aesthetics.
A lack of bone around the tooth must be present for a retraction to appear. In cases where is indicated, this situation can be resolved by a connective tissue graft. The procedure is to obtain a small piece of gum from the palate that subsequently is grafted in the recession that has been previously prepared.
The area will slowly heal thus covering the lesion. This new tissue will be identical to adjacent areas. The healing process takes about six weeks, but the remodelling of the gingiva may continue for 12 months.
Another technique to cover recessions is to use a grafting material obtained from animals or humans rather than the patient’s tissue. The graft is modelled based on the anatomy of the recession that needs to be covered. This type of graft heals in the same way as the connective tissue of the patient. With these techniques, we cover not only the recession, but we also achieve thick enough gum to prevent recurrence and get correct gingival health.
Gum Graft - Coronally Advanced Flap
One of the techniques to treat a gingival recession is the realization of periodontal plastic surgery with a coronal flap.
To perform this, the size of the recession is first measured, which will indicate the type of procedure to be followed. Next, the type of recession is designed and the flap is released to eliminate tensions and so it can be sutured passively in a more coronal position, thus covering the gingival recession.
Another option would be to place a connective tissue biomaterial graft in the area of the recession, which will be covered with the flap sutured coronally and passively. This graft will mature, and in addition to covering the recession, it will generate a greater volume of gingiva in that area.
