Today marks the one-week anniversary of my first-ever (and ideally last-ever) gum graft. I'm glad I have a follow up appointment today, because I've been popping stitches like bubble wrap.
This photograph is unflattering in many ways, but really doesn't do justice to the Not Prettyness that is a gum graft. I've been describing it in words for many months now and that is far less pretty:
The natural gums at the base of my teeth were receding--so far that the roots were showing. This was not good so, to avoid further recession, gums from the roof of my mouth were taken and patched over the exposed roots of my teeth. When this procedure was first proposed to me I was provided with two choices: use gums of my own (which would eventually take hold in their new location, growing blood vessels, etc...how fascinating is that!?) or use gums FROM A DEAD DONATED BODY. I keep this in mind whenever my thoughts float to how gross it is to have my own gums patched with stitches onto the base of my teeth. AT LEAST THEY ARE MINE and not from a DEAD ABOUT-TO-BE-ROTTING BODY OF SOME (VERY KIND BUT STRANGER TO ME) SOUL.
Eeeee my brother Evan did the gum graft thing. At my last cleaning, my hygienist told me I'd better start taking better care of my mouthsicles, or else I'd need one, too.
ReplyDeleteWhen we were little, sometimes our gums would bleed when we would brush our teeth, and then when we told our mom, she told us to brush harder.
eep. yeah, that's not good advice. it was hypothesized that the reason my gums were receding was because i brushed my teeth too much. i didn't think that was possible to do, but apparently it issssssssssssssssssssss.
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