can gums grow back - long in the tooth

Capt'n Midnight

just wondering, you know the way gums recede as you get older, can you get them to grow back over the teeth ?

Big_G

Gums should not recede as you get older. Age may be a contributing factor, but there may be an underlying disease process causing recession, including periodontal disease or trauma from toothbrushing.

However, to answer your question, there is no way to get the gums to grow back. Grafting technology has significantly improved in the last 10-20 years and grafting is possible in certain areas of the mouth and in particular cases. This can help to regain lost tissue. It is unfortunately not a cure all.

I am not hugely knowledgable about this area of specialty, maybe fitzgeme would like to jump in with a fill out in knowledge.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Basically your gum is about 2-3 mm think covering the bone. The shape of the gum reflects the shape of the bone. So you can take some gum from elsewhere if the defect is small and graft it however this is very unpredictable. You can graft the bone underneath but again this can be somewhat unpredictable. So in short there is no way to predictablly regenerate gum tissue, there are some clever biological agents used and techniques that have pretty good success rates however the main aim of treating gum recession is to prevent any further loss and stop senstivity.

Some proceedures you can look up on the net are
1. Free gingival Graft
2. Pellical Graft (lateral)
3. Guided Tissue Regeneration
4. Emdogain
5. Orthodontic extrusion/intrusion
6. Connective tissue Graft

Finally if you have really bad reseccion and need a crown sometime you can camoflague the defect with pink restorative materials. If you are missing a tooth and need more bone or gum for implant therapy this is far more predictable cause you dont need to get the tooth to reattach to the gum and bone.

lomb

as fitzgeme and bigg say the mainstay of periodontal treament is to stop it getting worse.
in fact good periodontal tratment can take normal looking gum height and turn it into long in tooth looks. the reason for this is the bone shrunk away underneath but gum is inflamed or stays at old position creating a huge pocket where bacteria live and create more bone loss till the teeth are lost. perio flaps are lifted and the teeth cleaned and pockets reduced by suturing the gums at a higher position so the pockets will be small.
as fitzgeme says restorative treatment can restore some normality, veneers possibly also are an option using them to close spaces etc. this is an example of this with a combination of 10 veneers/crowns(alot).