Gummy Smile
What is it?
It is called gummy smile or gum smile when the patient at the time of smiling shows an excessive amount of gingiva, taking away from a pleasant smile.
Gummy Smile Causes
This can occur for various reasons. We will mention the three most common ones below:
1. Passive altered eruption: the first cause is when the teeth are partially hidden in the gum making them appear shorter and showing more gum when smiling; This is due to problems when teeth erupt and is called passive altered eruption.
2. Excessive growth of the upper jaw: the teeth are their normal size but the bone (upper jaw) has grown more than normal, this causes the patient to show more gum than normal.
3. Levator lip muscles are very active: the third most common cause is when we have a short lip and the levator lip muscles are very active.
Many times there are combinations of these causes.
The gummy smile has a negative effect on the aesthetics of your smile. The good news is that there are several options to correct the gummy smile or gummy smile.
Check out our Gum Smile Cases here.
Gingival Aesthetic Recontouring
Gingival aesthetic recontouring is a cosmetic procedure used when the gum plays a distracting or unattractive role. It involves removing part of the gum that is covering part of the tooth, making it appear shorter, and is performed using a procedure called gingivectomy. With this procedure, we can achieve better harmony of your smile by giving your teeth the correct proportion.
In many cases, we have to combine gingivectomy or cutting of the gum with osteotomy or cutting of the bone to achieve the optimal result.
There are several situations in which we can use this procedure:
- Patients who have a gummy smile.
- Patients who have completed their orthodontic treatment and have square-shaped teeth.
