“How painful is pinhole gum surgery?”

From what I hear not bad at all

Pinhole surgery is an excellent option for gum recession. It is not painful if u are well anesthetized. There are no scalpel  cuts  and no sutures. There are only 2 pinholes created by a needle that heal in 24 hours and all the work is done through the 2 pinholes,  similar to arthroscopic surgery using small slits rather than pinholes to do all the work. Basically,  Pinhole is like a facelift but instead of loosening the tissue from the bone and pulling the skin tight, you are loosening the gum from the bone and dropping the gum down to cover all the gum recession and that will be the new permanent position of the gum as it heals. The gums are weighted down with collagen to stay put in the new position. This is done to prevent gum shrinkage which is the normal way tissue heals. There are no sutures or stitches.  The healing, however,  is a process and must be strictly followed as far as instructions.  You cannot brush for 1 month.  U will only use a prescription antibacterial mouth rinse. In time,  u will be taught to brush very, very gently as the gum tissue is reattaching to the bone in its ' new position that covers all the gum recession. In 3 months,  you will be well healed and you will be very pleased with the end result. If you are patient with the process and committed to following instructions,  it will be worth it to not see the gum recession anymore.  After that,  you must never do what you did to cause gum recession again in the first place. Commonly, it is brushing too hard, too often, or too long with a medium or hard toothbrush. Like handwashing, it is possible to wash thoroughly and be clean without taking off skin in the process. You must overcome the habit of thinking clean teeth results from overkill brushing. That is what you call a thought distortion but not reality. You don't want to ruin the beautiful result once your gum recession is fixed. 

For pinhole gum grafting surgery first, you will need to be seen by a dentist who is certified in pinhole to see if you’re a candidate for pinhole surgery. Surgery is performed using a local anesthetic like Novocaine. After surgery Advil or ibuprofen is generally adequate for postoperative pain management. Sometimes there is some swelling. We recommend ibuprofen pre-surgically and ice packs, cold liquids, and elevation and ibuprofen after surgery.

Sincerely,

Dr. Stanley D. Halpern