Terrified about my gums SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!

I am terrified about my gums and what is happening. I am 38 years old and I am hoping someone can put my mind at ease or have ideas as to what may be going on. My two top fang teeth are receeding. One is worse than the other. The one has a notch and the tooth has became longer and it seems that above that same tooth the color is a very off color. Not white, not yellow. I want to say greenish grayish but not really it's a (hard color to explain) It is very noticable that my gum receeded and my tooth is not fitting into my gum and whatever this is I am seeing (the root?) is exposed. Now today I look and it seems my other side top fang tooth is starting to do the same thing. IS this gum disease or could I have abfraction lesions from my jaw clenching problem and mis aligned teeth?? I used to be an aggresive tooth brusher as well. I tried to see other pictures on the web to fit these two ideas I have and although the teeth I saw kinda look like these two why is mine of such weird discoloration?? The teeth I saw were of yellowish brown at the roots. I am SO AFRAID right now as I have no dental coverage and Gum Grafts I assume are expensive. What are my other options?? My gums are not bleeding and do not hurt however I do need a good cleaning as it has been awhile. How can I tell if this is Gum disease or something else is going on? I am scared this will happen to all my teeth. I can actually feel the notch with my tounge. Any one have ideas??? Greatly appreciated I am a MESS right now.

Hi lala19! You have just described my lower front teeth there! I too am a clencheer and I was an agressive brusher too but now I try to brush up over the receding gums rather than scrub them off the tooth!!

I have those notches too where the gum has receeded and on a couple of them I have abfraction thingies too. I can tell the difference between those and the notches by the sensitivity there. I have been to several dentists in the last while and not one mentioned gum disease so I'm guessing I don't have that!

You might see about having adhesive fillings on your abfraction lesions. As far as I know they are just sort of glued on with no need for drilling (but I am open to correction there! ) I think you can also just have them sealed which is easier again.

Hope that helps until someone with a bit more knowledge than I have, posts a reply for you!

Good answer Sudzs!

What you are describing sounds like a few of my teeth; at the gumline I have a band of discolouration on the tooth. Some are dark yellow, some almost black and one is green (that's just weird!). From talking to my anxiety therapist, who is also a dental hygenist, I'm pretty certain that it's just staining of the softer part of the tooth and not anything more sinister.

If you think of how a tooth is made up, the top of the tooth has an enamel surface. This is smooth and hard; stains brush of it fairly easy. Underneath this is the dentine, this is like a honeycomb with lots of tubes leading to the middle of the tooth. If the surface of the dentine gets exposed then it's very easy for staining to get along the tubes. No amount of brushing will clean along the tube to remove the stain, you will only clean the end.

If you have brushed the gum off the tooth and allowed the edge of the dentine to be exposed, even to just a liquid getting between the gum and tooth, then you can get the staining. It can be removed but its a hygenist type thing.