I had a spring retainer made and then the orthodontist shaved 2mm off the side of my tooth and its created this black triangle because he didn’t make the spring retainer right. I still question whether the 2mm needed to be shaved because I had braces before and everything was fine before the tooth shifted. Anyway, is there a way to help the gum grow and cover this black triangle? .
\n– Jamie from California<\/p>\n
Jamie, We occasionally see complaints of people who have had braces and then have some associated gum recession and get black triangles between their teeth. If this does happen and the teeth are straight and touching each other, then the solution has to be some type of dental bonding<\/a> to add to the sides of the affected teeth near the gumline.<\/p>\n To address this you need an expert cosmetic dentist. Please don’t make the mistake of going to your family dentist for a solution to this. This is way beyond the basic education dentists get in dental school.<\/p>\n Read a post with Jamie’s follow-up question, where Dr. Hall begins to question whether or not Jamie is becoming obsessive over a small defect: Sometimes you just have to trust your dentist<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nAbout this black triangle<\/a> – I feel like I would need to understand more about your case to say whether or not this is easily fixable. I would suspect that the orthodontist<\/a> is planning on closing this space, but I don’t know. I general, these black triangles can be tricky. Preventing them or treating them is all in the shaping and positioning of the teeth on either side. It doesn’t really work to graft in gum tissue to cover these. The position and shape of the gums is a natural response to the positions and shapes of the teeth on either side, and if you surgically re-shaped the gums, within a few weeks they would go back to their natural contours.<\/p>\n