Gum Graft Surgery: What It Is, Procedure & Recovery

What Is Gum Graft Surgery?

It is a dental procedure that repairs and rebuilds gums. Gum grafting in Houston involves a surgical procedure to replace diseased and damaged gum tissue with transplanted graft tissue.

Procedure for Gum Graft Surgery

Your dentist in Houston will begin your treatment by numbing your mouth with local anesthesia. This way, you will not feel any pain during your treatment. The dentist will then begin preparing the surgical site. First, (s)he cuts your gums to create a flap or the grafting process. Then, your dentist will clean the tooth roots and smooth them out before proceeding with the surgery.

The next step entails obtaining a gum graft from a different part of your mouth. Usually, the surgeon can harvest the tissue from the roof of your mouth. A small piece of the inner tissue is sufficient to perform the grafting procedure. After harvesting the graft, the dentist will suture the tissues and proceed to the next step. However, if you prefer a graft from a different donor source, the dentist will skip the harvesting step.

Placing the graft on the receded part of the gums is a simple step. Afterward, the dentist only needs to suture the gums, prompting the body to begin the healing process.

How Long Does Gum Grafting Last?

A gum grafting surgery does not take too long to complete. The dentist should be done with your treatment within an hour or less. However, it depends on the size of the surgical size. If the size is too big, the dentist may need to harvest multiple grafts from different sources, which can lengthen your treatment timeline.

Do You Really Need a Gum Graft Surgery?

Gum grafting near you helps restore teeth after gum recession, which results from progressing periodontal disease. Gum recession is a condition where the gums pull away from your natural teeth due to an underlying infection. While it may seem like a small matter, gum recession leads to various oral complications if you do not seek gum graft surgery. Some complications of receded gums are:

1. Weak and shaky teeth – gums are significant for supporting and stabilizing your teeth.
2. Exposed tooth roots – the more your tooth roots are out in the open, the higher the risk of infections like tooth abscesses.
3. Heightened tooth sensitivity
4. High risk of dental cavities
5. Premature tooth loss – with little to no stability, your natural teeth may start falling off.

Will Gum Graft Surgery Treat Periodontal Disease?

Technically, gum graft surgery is among the treatment options for treating gum disease. However, it is not the ultimate treatment for the infection. Usually, dentists recommend different treatments before performing graft surgery. The other treatments mitigate the infection to restore gum health. When your gums are healthy, you can undergo a gum graft surgery to restore the lost or damaged part of your gums. Otherwise, gum graft surgery on infected gums will not be successful. Therefore, consider other periodontal treatments like:

1. Antibiotics
2. Deep cleaning – entailing scaling and root planing.
3. Bone grafting – to restore damaged bone tissue in your jawbone.
4. Tooth extraction.

Is Gum Grafting Worth It?

One of the most frequently asked questions about gum graft surgery at Greater Houston Dental Arts is whether the procedure is worthwhile. Evaluating a procedure’s worth is a technical matter that only works well if you really need the treatment. Still, the following are the benefits of gum graft surgery:

1. May prevent tooth loss – if you get a gum graft surgery early, you may reinforce teeth’ strength and stability. Therefore, you will not need an extraction procedure.
2. It stakes high success rates of over 90% of all procedures.
3. It reduces the risk of oral infections like gum disease, dental cavities, and abscess teeth.
4. It improves your smile’s appearance. An aesthetically pleasing smile should ideally have about 3 or 4 millimeters of gum tissue being exposed. Therefore, gum grafting surgery restores your gums so you do not have the impression of unusually long teeth when you smile.
5. It improves teeth function – reinforcing stability and reducing sensitivity improve your teeth’ health for optimal functionality.