Manrina Rhode shares everything you need to know about gum fillers, from what the treatment involves to how long it lasts for.
This is such a talked about topic, and I feel like that’s because it’s a bit of a mystery. There are only a handful of dentists offering this treatment in the UK – I was the dentist to bring the treatment to the UK.
About eight years ago, I was studying in America, and I happened to come across a course there on this interesting topic. I went and learned about it and brought the treatment to the UK. And I have done so many cases since coming back here, slowly spreading the word. More and more clinicians are also now trying to learn how to do it.
Let me tell you a little bit about how the process works…
Black triangles
It will only work for black triangles in between teeth – it doesn’t work for black triangles between implants or black triangles between a tooth and a bridge. You want to have two teeth where you’ve got some papilla that you want to make slightly bigger.
There’s only so much space within that papilla that you can fill, so you fill it with hyaluronic acid filler – the same fillers you would use for lip fillers – and there’s only a tiny amount that you can pop in.
What happens is, as you start to pop the filler in, it starts coming out, either through the sulcus or through the injection point where the injection has gone in. So, it’s limited – your results are limited.
The good thing about this is that black triangles are really tiny, right? They’re not usually a massively visible thing, so you can get quite a lovely result from it, unless they’re there because of bone loss or periodontal disease.
Now, if it is due to periodontal disease, then it’s really important to get the periodontal disease stabilised before injecting the gums with gum fillers.
How long does the treatment last?
We tell patients that it will last for six months. But to be honest, I’ve been doing this treatment for about eight years now, and I’ve not had anyone come back needing more.
Actually, what we’re taught is that it will probably stay there forever. The gums are not an area of the mouth or the body that move very much, so there’s no reason for that filler to dissipate. But you tell patients six months just so you’re covering yourself.
If it was in that amount of time that they felt like they needed more, you wouldn’t want to promise that it would last forever, although I think I probably will start promising longer than six months now, with eight years worth of case studies showing that it’s lasting really well.
Once the hyaluronic acid is placed inside the gum, they get an immediate result. So immediately they can see the gums are better. And then as the hyaluronic acid picks up moisture, picks up water, the gums expand a little bit more, and they’re allowed to expand a little bit more as the entry point of the needle closes over so the filler is not just coming straight out again, but it’s locked within the gum and then can expand.
Further treatment
Typically we get we get a fabulous result. I’ll get a patient back for review within two to four weeks from the initial gum filler, and it’s rare that at that review we need to pop anymore in. Generally, they’re really happy with the result.
If it’s a really large black triangle, it might be something that you want to combine with interproximal bonding to close up those those triangles, or veneers or ortho – however it is that you want to close those triangles.
Often patients don’t want those treatments because, you know interproximal bonding has its own limitations. Bonding will stain at the best of times, and interproximal areas will stain at the best of times. So combining the two isn’t always the best option.
Dermal filler for a larger black triangle may be a compromise, but it may be enough for the patient just to not feel so self conscious that there’s a black area there where food’s getting stuck, or if it looks like there’s food stuck at other times.
It’s just another example of how dentistry, or the treatments that we can do in the mouth, are evolving and becoming easier and more straightforward options for our patients to get really fantastic results, less downtime and better, long-lasting results.
Catch up with previous Aesthetic Dentistry Expert columns:
- Gum contouring – everything you need to know
- Midline diastemas – to treat or not to treat?
- World Kindness Day: why is kindness a key skill for clinicians?
- Sober October: exploring alcohol and oral health
- Why is overall health important in aesthetic dentistry?
Visit Manrina’s website here: www.drmrlondon.co.uk.
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