Gum recession happens when the gum tissue surrounding your teeth pulls back or wears away, exposing more of the tooth or its root. It’s far more common than most people realize: a 2025 meta-analysis in the Journal of Dentistry estimated that about 81% of adults have at least 1 millimeter of recession on one or more teeth. The causes range from everyday habits to genetics, hormones, and chronic diseases.
Gum Disease Is the Leading Cause
Periodontal (gum) disease is the most common driver of receding gums. It starts when bacteria in plaque build up along and below the gumline, triggering inflammation. In its early stage, called gingivitis, your gums may look red, feel tender, and bleed when you brush. This is reversible with better oral hygiene.
When gingivitis goes untreated, it can progress to periodontitis. At that point, the infection begins breaking down the bone and connective tissue that anchor your teeth in place. As that support structure deteriorates, the gums pull away from the teeth, creating deeper pockets where even more bacteria collect. This cycle of infection and tissue loss is what makes periodontitis the single biggest reason adults lose gum tissue permanently.
Brushing Too Hard Wears Gums Down
Aggressive brushing is one of the most overlooked mechanical causes of recession. Using a hard-bristled toothbrush or pressing too firmly places repeated stress on the gumline, gradually wearing away the delicate tissue near the neck of the tooth where support is already limited. The damage tends to show up on the side of the mouth opposite your dominant hand, since that’s where most people apply the most pressure.
Switching to a soft-bristled brush and using gentle, circular motions rather than a hard back-and-forth scrub can make a real difference. If you notice your brush bristles splay out within a few weeks, that’s a reliable sign you’re pressing too hard.
Grinding, Clenching, and Oral Piercings
Teeth grinding and clenching (bruxism) place excessive biting forces on the bone and tissue supporting your teeth. Over time, this contributes to bone loss underneath the gums, and the gum tissue follows the bone downward. Many people grind in their sleep without knowing it. Morning jaw soreness, headaches near the temples, and worn-down tooth surfaces are common clues.
Lip and tongue piercings cause a different kind of mechanical damage. The jewelry repeatedly contacts the gumline during speaking and chewing, creating constant friction that slowly erodes gum tissue. The recession typically shows up in isolated spots directly behind or near the piercing, most often on the lower front teeth with tongue piercings and the outer gums with lip piercings.
Genetics and Gum Thickness
Not everyone starts with the same amount of gum tissue, and that baseline matters. Dentists classify gum tissue into biotypes based on thickness and shape. A “thin and scalloped” biotype, where the tissue measures less than 1.5 millimeters thick, is more translucent, has a minimal zone of attachment to the tooth, and is significantly more vulnerable to recession than the “thick and flat” type (2 millimeters or more).
Your biotype is largely inherited. So is the position and alignment of your teeth within the jawbone. If a tooth sits slightly outside the arch of the jaw, the bone covering its root may be thinner from the start, leaving the overlying gum with less support. This is why some people develop recession even with excellent brushing habits and no gum disease. It’s not necessarily something they did wrong.
Hormonal Changes in Women
Fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone have a direct effect on gum tissue. When these hormones rise, as they do during puberty, certain points in the menstrual cycle, and pregnancy, more blood flows to the gums. That makes them more sensitive and more reactive to plaque and bacteria. The resulting inflammation, if it persists, can lead to bone loss around the teeth.
Pregnancy gingivitis is a well-recognized example. Gums become red, tender, and swollen, and without careful management the inflammation can damage supporting tissue. On the other end of the hormonal spectrum, menopause brings a drop in estrogen that puts women at risk for decreased bone density throughout the body, including the jaw. As jaw bone thins, gums recede to follow, exposing more of the tooth surface and increasing vulnerability to decay.
Tobacco Use Doubles Your Risk
Smokers face twice the risk of gum disease compared to nonsmokers, according to the CDC. Tobacco restricts blood flow to gum tissue, which slows healing and makes it harder for your body to fight off the bacterial infections that cause periodontal breakdown. Smokeless tobacco is no safer. Chewing tobacco held against the gums delivers a concentrated dose of irritants directly to the tissue, often producing visible recession at the site where the tobacco is placed.
The reduced blood flow also means that smokers sometimes don’t notice the early warning signs of gum disease, like bleeding during brushing, because their gums bleed less despite being inflamed. This can delay treatment and allow more damage to accumulate before the problem becomes obvious.
Diabetes and High Blood Sugar
Diabetes and gum disease have a two-way relationship. Persistently high blood sugar triggers increased production of harmful molecules called reactive oxygen species, which ramp up oxidative stress in the body. In the gums, this accelerates tissue destruction. High blood sugar also amplifies the body’s inflammatory response to oral bacteria, making even a small amount of plaque more damaging than it would be in someone with normal blood sugar levels.
At the same time, the chronic inflammation from gum disease can make blood sugar harder to control, creating a cycle that worsens both conditions. People with poorly managed diabetes are more likely to develop severe periodontitis and, by extension, significant gum recession.
Orthodontic Treatment
Moving teeth through bone with braces or clear aligners can contribute to recession, particularly when the movement pushes a tooth outside the natural envelope of bone. If the bone on one side of a tooth becomes too thin during treatment, the overlying gum may recede. For patients who already have some recession before starting orthodontics, shifting teeth without precautions can make existing problems worse, leading to increased sensitivity or further tissue loss.
Traditional braces also create more surfaces where food and bacteria can accumulate, which is especially problematic for anyone already prone to gum inflammation. This doesn’t mean orthodontic treatment should be avoided, but it does mean that gum health needs to be assessed and sometimes reinforced before and during treatment.
Other Contributing Factors
A few additional causes are worth knowing about. Misaligned teeth or a bad bite can concentrate chewing forces on certain areas, accelerating wear on the supporting bone and gums in those spots. Inadequate dental care, meaning not enough brushing or flossing to keep plaque under control, allows the bacterial buildup that starts the whole chain of inflammation and tissue loss. And trauma to the gums from ill-fitting dentures, a sports injury, or even habitual nail biting can damage tissue enough to trigger localized recession.
In many cases, recession results from more than one factor working together. Someone with a thin gum biotype who also grinds their teeth and brushes aggressively faces a much higher cumulative risk than any single cause would produce on its own. Identifying which factors apply to you is the first step toward slowing or stopping further tissue loss.