When your dentist takes care of your periodontally compromised teeth, he may have to clean and treat them way below the area easily accessible to him, i.e. below the margin of your gums. Sometimes he may also have to operate on the bone supporting your teeth. But periodontal surgery may also involve procedures designed cosmetic improvement, such as covering exposed crown margins or dental necks from which the gums have receded. At times, mucosal or soft tissue grafts have to be harvested from the palate and transplanted to other sites in the mouth. Bone augmentation with bone autografts or bone substitutes are another domain of periodontal surgery. Whatever you may need from the battery of available options can only be determined by a careful work-up.