The Causes of the Development of Pinhole Surgical Technique
Many people have a fear of dentistry. For some it is the pain associated with dental procedures and for others it is the cost. One procedure that was formerly very painful and costly was gum surgery. The trials of traditional gum rejuvenation have been nearly eradicated thanks to the development of pinhole gum surgery.
Pinhole gum surgery was developed by Dr. John Chao, of Chao Dentistry, as an answer to the pain, cost, and healing time with traditional gum rejuvenation. The traditional process of gum rejuvenation is painful to say the least. It require hours upon hours of the dentist to be all in the patient’s mouth cutting and sewing to fix the patient’s receding gum line. That is a long time for a person to have their mouth open for just a few teeth. The dentist has to take skin from different areas of the patient’s mouth to sew onto the receding gum line.
Traditional gum rejuvenation only allows for one to four teeth to be fixed in one sitting. A patient with extensive gum recession will require several sittings to have all of their gum repaired. After the gum is repaired, the patient must allow time for recovery. This not only takes an extensive time frame, but it is also still very painful for a while. The patient may take anywhere from two to four weeks to completely heal.
Now, to put this in perspective, a two to four week recovery for a patient’s mouth means the patient may have to take some time off from work especially if their job requires them to talk a lot. The patient’s mouth will be swollen, raw, and very tender from all the cutting and suturing done. There is not only one place that has to heal but there are two. The gum itself has to heal and the place that the skin was taken from. Patients also have to wait months in between treatments for the connective tissue, that was grafted, to regrow before another procedure can be done. The cost for the traditional procedure is…
