How To Restore The Appearance Of Healthy Gums After Periodontitis
If you've successfully recovered from advanced gum disease like periodontitis, you deserve a round of applause. Gum disease can be difficult to reverse, and it can wreak havoc on your overall oral health. However, even once you've beaten the disease, you may have noticed that your gums don't look the same as they once did. Keep reading to learn how gum disease can alter the appearance of your gums and smile and to learn what you can do to fix it.
How Periodontitis Changes The Gums
When the earlier form of gum disease develops, it can cause your gums to recede slightly from the teeth. However, once gum disease becomes more severe as periodontitis, this becomes full-fledged tissue damage.
With periodontitis, severe recession of the gums develops, and gum tissue is lost due to exposure to severe inflammation and poor blood flow. Once you reverse periodontitis, the gums may come back down slightly over the tooth, but the missing gum tissue won't grow back.
Unfortunately, this can cause your smile to appear overly toothy, making your teeth look longer than they should. This is considered to be an unwanted appearance by many, so if you want to have it fixed, look no further than a cosmetic dentist.
Repair Process
Cosmetic dentists are able to repair the damage to your gums by performing a tissue graft. After analyzing the damage to your gums, your cosmetic dentist will recommend surgically removing slivers of tissue from the roof of your mouth in order to transplant them onto your gums.
This process is relatively simple and has a very small recovery period. Your dentist will anesthetize you, and then carefully remove minute amounts of tissue from the roof of your mouth. Then, after cutting and shaping them, they'll stitch this tissue onto the end of your gums, lengthening them.
Your gums will share a blood supply with the new tissue, and over time, the tissue will merge with the gums, restoring your healthy smile. Rest assured that the roof of your mouth will also heal and won't require any additional maintenance or care from you.
Avoiding Future Damage
Once your procedure is complete, it's important to avoid developing gum disease again. If you were to develop periodontitis again, the same damage to your gums would ensue, and your cosmetic dentist's work would be undone. Maintain your oral hygiene with flossing, brushing, and regular visits to your dentist for cleaning and examinations to avoid gum disease.