Receding gums after braces

Message

#1 Post by **Chocoholic** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 9:16 am

Hey,

This might be a weird question but, after my lower braces were taken off today, my gum line appears to be a lot lower, with more tooth showing. Anyone else had this? Is it normal?

#2 Post by **jcdamon3** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 10:25 pm

Hi,
I don't have my braces off yet, but I am noticing that my gums on the front lower teeth are seriously lower than they were. So I am wondering....if you stretch out your gums because your teeth were really crowded before aren't they pretty much obligated to sort of look kind of stretched out for awhile? I don't know!

Sure wish the doc would respond to this.

For sure if I ever had any plaque build up and gum recession it would have been there on the lower bottom teeth, since that is where all the plaque goes, for some reason. But I never really had bad pockets or gum disease. I have always visited the dentist every 6 months religiously my entire life and brushed twice a day. I never had swollen red gums there even though my teeth were crowded. I have never had my dentist tell me I have a problem or tell me I need my roots scraped.

So you have to believe that as your arch expands, those poor little gums have to sort of stretch out to accomodate things! How can the gums possibly cope? Are the gums like skin? Do they just sort of grow when they are challenged like when somone gains weight or has breast implants?

#3 Post by **spragers** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 10:28 pm

I always figured that no matter how much you brush with braces on, your gums won't get stimulated the way they normally would. Once the brackets come off, everything should eventually return to normal. Of course, I've got Essix retainers, so my teeth spend 90% of the day covered up even more than when I had braces LOL so I make sure to spend extra time brushing my gums now.

#4 Post by **bracesmom** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 6:22 pm

Rather than your gums receding, could it be that when you had braces, your teeth were pulled more from the gumline?

#5 Post by **johnnys_angel** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 9:05 pm

Sorry for the late reply- When I had my braces on, my gums sort of 'grew' up near my brackets because they were irritated of the metal. when i got my brackets off, then my gums receded back to where they were originally. Could this be what happened to you?

#6 Post by **Chocoholic** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 9:02 am

Hmmm not sure, but they look a little better now I can brush them properly again.

Although I have one of those triangle little gaps which I hope will disappear once my gums are back to normal.

All good so far though.

#7 Post by **merrily** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 2:07 pm

My bottom gumline is really low too, I have huge black triangles between almost every tooth (still have my braces on). It's unattractive and quite disheartening.

The periodontist said I have bone loss, which is not the same as receding gums--he said that my bone was already thin before braces, and the stress caused by moving teeth resulted in the bone becoming even thinner, hence the lower gumline. In other words, there is less bone to support my teeth now, and my dentist said I need to maintain good brushing habits or I will lose teeth.

She said my gums are healthy and I have no pockets, so the gums are not the problem. If I only had receding gums, there would still be enough bone to support my teeth and all I would need is a gum graft. But with bone loss, a gum graft wouldn't help in terms of supporting my teeth. I don't know what can be done to build up the bone there, although the perio did say some of it will come back once braces are off (another reason to want them off asap). I'm not sure how much bone will grow though ... my black triangles are a few millimeters high in some places.