Metal Mouth Message Board

DAY ONE
I have had a hard time finding anything in depth about having a gum graft on the forum, so I thought I'd post my experience for anyone else who might have had one or who might be having one.

The periodontist told me that it would feel like a bad "pizza burn" on the roof of my mouth.....
Oh, I guess I should tell you how it was done! They take a piece of skin from the roof of your mouth and place it over the tooth root that needs the graft. Not sure of everything he did since he used nitrous oxide, but I can tell you that there was some pressure and scraping (?) on the tooth to be grafted. Then he took the skin and placed it over the root and stitched it up. He then stitched up the roof of my mouth and placed my Essix retainer in to guard the area that is exposed in the of my mouth. (My Essix covers a little of the roof of my mouth). He put a putty-like "band-aid" over the area where the graft is and it looks like a flattened piece of chewing gum over my lower incisors.

So back to the pizza burn. I don't really feel anything in the roof of my mouth yet since I am still waiting on the novacaine to wear off, but I do feel the grafted area. He prescribed Darvocet and I have to admit, I thought that it wasn's supposed to be painful. However, I am glad that he prescribed it now because I am getting more and more feeling in my grafted area and it is started to throb now. I must also tell you that I don't have the highest pain tolerance, but I am not a total wimp either. Wishing that pain pill would start working about now since I don't want to feel it if it starts to hurt a lot.

I have to wear my retainer day and night for a week. I can't even take it out to eat. Since it is my own retainer, I am thinking that a week of Slim Fast won't be too bad. I really don't want to chew anything since I don't want to have to buy another retainer. Kind of wishing that I had told the periodontist that we could use the retainer they were gonna make for me. Too late now.

I'd take pictures right now, but the roof of my mouth is a little gory. There's blood in my retainer and the spot where they took the skin looks like a red leech. OMG! Gross!!!!!! I'll try tomorrow when the gore has receded a little. Y'all will be able to see more that way too.

Holly,
Sounds rough Holly ! Try to get as comfy as possible and hopefully the pain won't last too long. Feel better soon
Moi

Thanks for your well wishes guys! I'm doing better today. The site where they took the graft from doesn't hurt at all, however a large, rectangular piece of the roof of MY mouth came out today while I was delicately brushing my teeth. I thought about calling the dentist, but I don't want that back in my mouth and and I have had absolutely no pain there. The lower jaw is another story. As long as I don't talk I'm fine, but as soon as I start talking it starts throbbing. I took a vitamin last night before bed but because I hadn't eaten anything solid I worked hard to keep it down. I think I'll stick to liquid vitamins. HA!

I can't get to my sister's digital camera today, so I thought I'd post a few links for those of you who are interested in what the procedure is.

The surgical procedure (in PDF)
http://www1.umn.edu/perio/dent6613/Plas ... al%20graft'

What mine looked like (sort of)
http://www.christieleedds.com/Frame.htm ... aft.html&2

Why did you have this surgery?

Is it because of gum receding or showing roots?

I have 3 more weeks and my braces are coming off, and I noticed the gums around the bottom front four teeth are starting to recede and have the dreaded "black triangles". I wonder if this is a viable option.

Sorry! I never saw the post on this one!

I had the graft done because I had too much root showing on one of my lower incisors. I wanted to get it taken care of soon because I have the money and will not have to worry about it later. Also, my tooth was sensitive to cold before.

My gums are healed now and I can eat whatever I want. I am also having no sensitivity in the tooth.

b3nault, check with your periodontist. I was told by my perio that women often have very thin gum tissue there at the front bottom teeth, sometimes from cleaning problems but usually from heredity. He recommended I have a gum graft before braces, so I did that and my ortho was very happy. It gave more room for those front bottom teeth to move without root trouble.
My experience was similar but a little different from Holly's. Since I didn't have a retainer the perio had a retainer-like thing made up just for the donor area (the area they take tissue from). I wore it while I ate and slept but was allowed to take it off other times while things were healing. I didn't have nitrous, and only needed ibuprofen afterwards. Though I did sleep the rest of the day after it was done in the morning!
I don't know if the tissue actually grows larger where they place it, but it seemed to me that it did. Those triangle areas are barely noticeable now.

ack! I'm am getting grafts done today at 2:30 and I am so scared!!! I am having 4 bottom teeth done!!

Thanks for posting this. My ortho just told me yesterday that I may end up needing this procedure for my lower canines. It's good to hear a review of the operation itself.

My other concern is how the tissue looks. Does it actually have the right shape and texture to look like normal?

Kittysopretty wrote:ack! I'm am getting grafts done today at 2:30 and I am so scared!!! I am having 4 bottom teeth done!!

i had the surgery done about five years ago. now of course it does hurt AFTER the surgery, like the night of, but the procedure itself isnt too bad. they used local anesthisia so i was awake the whole time. it was annoying, and the thing that made me nervous was THINKING about what they were doing in my mouth. What they were actually doing wasnt too bad. they'll let you listen to headphones. Just listen to talk radio or something so you can concentrate on that instead of letting your mind wander back to what's going on in your mouth.

Thanks for posting this. I'm having a soft tissue graft done in the middle of June after I get back from traveling. It's going to be the lower right incisor (tooth #25).

Do you think I'll be ok have spacers in front of the second molars only two days later? It's a totally different area of the mouth, so I should be ok, right?

Swan, talk to your ortho and perio about the timing for spacers after a gum graft. I had to wait about two weeks after the graft to go back for more braces prep work, to give the area time to heal without other stuff in there complicating matters.

Update, both said doing the spacers would be fine, because they are in a different area of the mouth, and I haven't had any problems.