Question:

I was told that I needed osseous surgery and bone grafting. What are the side effects of the surgery? I heard that after the surgery, I may have gum recession.

My periodontist said he might need to open the gum of 4 teeth in order to get access to the one that has problem. Will I have gum recession on all 4 teeth or just the one that has problem? What is the difference between bone grafting and osseous surgery?

Thank you!

Answer:

When we detect bone loss around teeth together with deep residual pockets, we treat them with surgery. We can place bone graft to regenerate what is lost to disease if the shape of bone loss allows us to stabilize bone graft material.
 
In other cases, when we have bone loss in horizontal direction, we cannot place bone graft. Instead, we contour the bony defect so that we can place soft tissue and hard tissue at the same level.

This way we get rid of the pocket and create an area that patient can maintain with daily brushing.

Recession after surgery occurs due to existing bone loss. The surgical trauma and related recession would be minimal. Severity of final recession depends on how much bone loss you have to start with and whether periodontist can perform regeneration (bone graft placement) versus osseous (removing some defective bone structure). Generally osseous surgery causes more recession compared to regeneration procedures.

For more information:

Go to the Gum Diseases health topic.