A Gum Lift Addresses Gum Recession

Gum lift was developed by Dr. Chao in California several years back. And now he's educating other doctors in his patented technique. Gum lift deals with gum recession where for whatever reason the gums have receded and going towards the root tip exposing the roots. In years past we've done free gingival grafts where you rob tissue out of the roof of the mouth, take it out of the mouth, and then put it back in the mouth in another location, kind of like a free graft on the skin. The gum lift is just a newer procedure technology that is more benign, less invasive, and gives less post-op problems than procedures in years past. But basically what the gum lift is, is a one-day appointment, one-day procedure where you actually take the gum tissue, if say this was the lower jaw and you just loosen it up from the bone and then you raise it back up to the neck of the teeth and then you use collagen fibers to support that lift where it won't drop back down. And of course, what happens is the gums reattach back to the bone and actually reattach to the root structure to again be where they used to be. The benefits to the patient is, first of all, it gives a beautiful smile. There's nothing more unsightly in a smile when you see half the roots when you smile. The other thing it does is it makes them a lot less receptible to root decay. Unlike the crown of the tooth, roots don't have the enamel. Being such, when roots are exposed, they are a lot more susceptible to decay. Recovery as far as completely healing and getting back to your normal life, you're looking at probably six or eight weeks. The biggest thing with the gum lift is post-op care. You have to be very meticulous in how you clean your teeth. You have to be very meticulous in the foods you eat. You don't want to do anything to jeopardize that gum lift from moving back down to where it used to be.