We placed a soft tissue graft into or over a tooth/implant to treat an area with receding gums.

 

Both the area where the tissue was harvested and the area where the graft was placed are going to be very sore after surgery. This pain felt in these areas is usually worst in the first 3 days and should improve by 10 to 14 days. If the pain increases significantly a few days (3 to 7 days) after the gum graft, please call for instructions.

 

You are probably going to experience some degree of swelling after surgery. The swelling is usually greatest in the first 5 days and should start to decrease by 7 to 10 days. If the swelling increases significantly a few days (3 to 7 days) after the gum graft, please call for instructions

 

You will probably have a little bit of bleeding and a pink color to your saliva for the first day or two after surgery. If there is excessive bleeding the day of or continual bleeding the day after surgery, please call for instructions.

 

You may feel as if there is a hole in the roof of you mouth. This is totally normal. It will take 3 to 4 months for this to completely fill back in to its normal dimension.

 

The sutures need to stay in place at least 7 days but may be left in place up to 1 month. We do this in order to keep the gums up high on the tooth anticipating some shrinkage with time.

 

The area that was grafted is going to appear very red and swollen for the first 3-4 weeks after surgery. This is also totally normal. The gum graft probably won’t look “normal” until 3 months after the surgery. It will continue to improve in appearance for up to 1 year after the procedure was performed. During the healing process you may notice a decrease in appearance of incision scar lines and an increase in root coverage. This is due to a phenomenon known as “creeping attachment” that leads to a slow increase in gingival tissue dimension long after the grafting procedure took place. So don’t worry if it doesn’t look the way you want it to look just a few weeks after surgery!