How long until a detached gum will reattach?

[Jahlenjohnson11]

Hello,

I have severe anxiety when it comes to the dentist which for most would mean a lack in caring or seeing their dentist.. for me it means excessive brushing/flossing and dentist visits. About a month ago I detached my gum (the middle part, I believe it’s a papilla) from my tooth. It swelled pretty big, a few days later it shrunk down but the gum was still longer between my teeth than it had been before.so 2 weeks or so later it reswelled and I freaked out. I went to my dentist and she said I probably got food stuck on it, then I flossed to aggressively and then those things caused the detachment and the swelling. she cleaned it out with something that tasted kind of minty and said it should start getting better. So I went home and 2 weeks later again it swelled but no where near what it had before. She cleaned it again and told me it could take up to 8 weeks to reattach. I am so scared and freaked out that it won’t reattach. Is there something else I should ask her to do for me? Will it reattach? I’m so scared ?

 

[Dg6300]

Obligatory not a dentist, or in this case, periodontist.

If you don't have a periodontist, ask your dentist for a referral.

My guess is that you have a gum graft in your future.

While a natural reaction might be to panic, I encourage you not to:

FWIW, on the second post of an old thread I gave exhaustive detail about my gum graft:

My success story

Three weeks ago I got the two lower wisdom teeth out. It went fine, generally, until I had a burning pain in the adjacent tooth, in/near the gum. I was taking more NSAIDs than I wanted. I faced my fear of asking for a follow up appointment from my oral surgeon. I also had to find the courage to...

www.dentalfearcentral.org

tldr: While not fun, there are many worse things in life than a gum graft. I might might might choose badly stubbing my toe over a gum graft, but I've 100% choose a gum graft over the mildest of colds, as far as suffering, or in the case of a gum graft, "suffering".

Put another way, if they tell you that you need a gum graft, then you can relax. They kind of suck, but are not as bad as what you are experiencing: not nearly as bad.

Get a second opinion. I think you're going to be okay. Keep us posted.

 

[Jahlenjohnson11]

Hmm, I don’t think this is the case. I have plenty of gum. There is 0 pain. It’s just inflamed. I’ll read up on what you shared though. My dentist seems to think this is a simple issue that will resolve on its own. There’s no bleeding or anything. No pain when it’s inflamed. It’s simply torn from the tooth.

 

[Jahlenjohnson11]

Obligatory not a dentist, or in this case, periodontist.

If you don't have a periodontist, ask your dentist for a referral.

My guess is that you have a gum graft in your future.

While a natural reaction might be to panic, I encourage you not to:

FWIW, on the second post of an old thread I gave exhaustive detail about my gum graft:

My success story

Three weeks ago I got the two lower wisdom teeth out. It went fine, generally, until I had a burning pain in the adjacent tooth, in/near the gum. I was taking more NSAIDs than I wanted. I faced my fear of asking for a follow up appointment from my oral surgeon. I also had to find the courage to...

www.dentalfearcentral.org

tldr: While not fun, there are many worse things in life than a gum graft. I might might might choose badly stubbing my toe over a gum graft, but I've 100% choose a gum graft over the mildest of colds, as far as suffering, or in the case of a gum graft, "suffering".

Put another way, if they tell you that you need a gum graft, then you can relax. They kind of suck, but are not as bad as what you are experiencing: not nearly as bad.

Get a second opinion. I think you're going to be okay. Keep us posted.

I think I worded part of it wrong. I don’t have recession, I have slight gum growth from the inflammation.

 

[Dg6300]

Oh okay.

You may want a referral for a periodontist anyway: it is like any specialist (medical/legal/financial) where it is good to have "a guy" for when you really need them.

Good luck!

 

[Gordon]

Sounds like a "split papilla" it's not a big deal, if it doesn't reattach by itself, then usually a small surgical procedure can repair it, or even just remove the excess bit of tissue.

It's such an easy procedure I actually did it to my wife... obviously if it wasn't simple and I wasn't convinced it would heal well I wouldn't take the chance of my life being made hell for years afterwards