Receding Gums Treatment

If your gums have begun to recede, it is important to schedule an appointment with your dentist or periodontist as soon as possible. Gums that have receded will not grow back naturally, however there are treatment options available to restore your natural gum line, the most common being a gum graft procedure.

Although gum recession is typically due to periodontal disease, which is typically caused by poor dental hygiene, there are several other reasons why gum recession may occur, which include:

• Genetic predisposition to periodontal disease
• Aggressive brushing over an extended period of time
• Smoking or other types of tobacco use
• Grinding or clenching your teeth while sleeping (bruxism)
• Malocclusion
• Underlying health conditions, such as diabetes and HIV
• Hormonal changes in women
• Medications that cause dry mouth, which makes your mouth vulnerable to bacterial infections
• Trauma to the mouth
• Poor fitting dentures

While a gum graft procedure is an effective treatment option to correct receding gums, it may be necessary to pursue additional treatments if your gum recession is caused by any of the previously stated reasons.

Treating Receding Gums Caused by Gum Disease

In order to determine whether gum disease is the underlying cause of your gum recession, your dentist will use a probe to measure the depth of your gum pockets. Healthy pocket sizes should be between 1-3 millimeters, and anything larger will indicate that gum disease is present. Once these pockets deepen, more bacteria is able to accumulate, which can rapidly speed up the recession of your gums and cause other oral health issues to develop, such as loosened teeth or even the loss of a tooth or teeth.

If your gums have receded due to periodontal disease, it may be possible to halt the recession with a scale and root planing procedure, a simple procedure that involves removing plaque and bacteria that have accumulated on the surfaces of your teeth and below the gumline. Once removed, the root of your mouth is smoothed, which inhibits growth of additional bacteria and gives your gums a chance to heal.

For more severe cases of gum recession, it may be necessary to pursue surgical treatment, with either flap surgery or a gum graft. Flap surgery corrects gum disease by lifting up the gums to access and remove the bacteria and tartar buildup that was not accessible via the scale and root planing procedure, then sewing the gums up and allowing them to heal. While this is an effective method for correcting advanced gum disease, it will not correct the appearance of your teeth being longer. To correct that will require a gum graft procedure. During the procedure, grafting material is placed over the area of recession. This graft may be taken from the roof your mouth, donor tissue, or synthetic. Although gum grafting will restore your natural healthy gumline, it is important to be aware that it is still essential to continue practicing good oral hygiene to prevent your gums from receding again in the future.

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