The Pinhole^® Surgical Technique

At Pacific Dental in Chelsea, we use the Pinhole Surgical Technique to fix receding gums & quickly improve your smile. This alternative to traditional grafting techniques provides immediate results & almost no healing time or symptoms.

Your gums are a very important part of maintaining oral health & keeping your teeth healthy. They protect the roots of your teeth by creating a seal around them. Keeping your gums healthy will help you avoid infections as well as gum recession, which can be caused by over-brushing, periodontal disease & bruxism (teeth grinding).

Regardless of the cause, gum recession can expose areas of your teeth that aren’t protected by enamel, causing pain & sensitivity. Because bacteria can completely bypass the protective layers of teeth, gum recession can also cause greater tooth decay, which in turn can mean you’ll need root canals or extractions sooner. Additionally, gum recession can negatively impact your smile by making your teeth appear longer.

Mild cases of gum recession can be treated by scaling & root planing, a non-invasive procedure in which your dentist cleans areas exposed by gum recession, as well as spaces underneath your gums that are prone to collecting decay-causing bacteria. The usual techniques for treating more advanced gum recession involve time-consuming, painful grafts that take a long time to heal. The Pinhole^® Surgical Technique does not use incisions, scalpels or sutures, takes much less time than grafting, creates less discomfort, & heals much more quickly. We are proud to be one of the few dental offices in Australia offering this advanced treatment method.

Procedure Overview

Traditional gum recession treatments use soft tissue grafts or donor tissue to rebuild the patient’s gum line. The Pinhole^® Surgical Technique, on the other hand, is much less invasive & merely adjusts the existing gum tissue. Special instruments are inserted into a small hole in the gum tissue to loosen it, allowing the dentist to expand & slide the gum line so that it covers the exposed part of your teeth.

Not only does the Pinhole^® Surgical Technique take less time to perform than traditional grafting procedures, but it also has a much shorter recovery time. With the Pinhole® Surgical Technique, you’ll be back to normal more quickly.