splitimage, I had a gum graft last December. My endodontist did the kind of graft where he sliced into the gum below where I needed the graft, and then folded it upward and stitched it in place. So the graft was never really fully detached from mouth, just sliced and folded upward. An advantage of this is that since the graft comes from the same part of the mouth, there is no difference in color, which can be an issue if you take the graft from elsewhere in the mouth. I had this done on six teeth, 3 on the bottom on each side. Since they were consecutive teeth on either side, this meant only 2 longish grafts.

The cells of the gums are about the fastest growing in the body. Your grafts will heal incredibly quickly. I had to come back in 10 days to get my stitches out, and this was too long to wait, as the grafts had taken so well, that cells had completely overgrown my stitches and they had to cut into my gums again to fish out the stitches. This was actually about the most painful part of the entire experience. The doc said if I ever do this again, to be sure to get my stitches out after only 7 days to avoid this problem.

Overall, this was not a painful procedure. They give you local anesthetic in your mouth. And they give you painkillers for afterwards. I think I took them on the first day only. And I took one day off of work.

As I recall, this procedure was quite expensive, and my endodontist wanted to overcharge my insurance. I had to watch all the bills closely to make sure I didn't have to overpay them. As I recall, the cost was about $2000-$3000. They charged on a per tooth basis, so for me, it was 6 teeth. Insurance covered part of it.

My endodontist seemed really pleased with the results, but it doesn't look that impressive to me. My grafts were not to raise my gum line on the bottom, but just to preserve the existing gumline, which was growing very thin and was in danger of exposing root. So maybe my gums now look thicker in that area, and I guess that was the goal. So they will be much less prone to recession now.

The worst part of this procedure for me, was that my endodontist said I needed a bite adjustment before I had the gum graft. I didn't really question this as he acted like it was standard procedure. If your provider says this, do not take the bite adjustment! Biggest dental mistake of my life. The procedure completely altered my bite and left my teeth unable to rest and meet each other. Now every day I get jaw fatigue because I have no place to rest my teeth. And it has altered the most comfortable resting position on my mouth, which makes me push my jaw out forward and frown. Very unattractive, but I can't help it, that is just what is most comfortable now. If he had told me this would be the result of the bite adjustment, I would have of course declined the procedure. So don't let yourself be talked into this.

Good luck.