Radiographically, the striking feature of this disease is the widening of the periodontal ligament space. Seifert, White and others have reported that this is an inconsistent finding in all patients with Progressive systemic sclerosis; however, this was contradicted by Marmary and others, who observed widened periodontal ligament space in all 21 patients examined.[5,14,15] In our study, 66% of the patients showed widened periodontal ligament space...
what is this "periodontal ligament space"?
this helps:
so, if i understand correctly, what's happening here is not that the gum is actually receding, but that the jaw is actually increasing. as your body doesn't grow new gum tissue, the increased amount of bone and tooth ends up pulling the gum back, creating the impression of gum recession - and ultimately exposing the tooth. and, this is a consequence of excess collagen in the "periodontal ligament space".
ok.
so, even if i don't have sclerosis, can i figure out if i actually have gum recession or am actually producing excess bone?