Feeling confident in your smile can help you feel at ease letting your personality shine. While most people are aware that tooth problems can affect your confidence, many people don’t consider how important your gums are in the look of your smile. Many smiles show more gum tissue than you may like, making your teeth look undersized and making it hard to feel great when you smile.
If you find yourself shying away from photos, hiding your smile in social situations, or holding back when you laugh because of your gummy smile, we can help!
WHAT IS A GUMMY SMILE?
When we smile, we engage muscles around the lips and cheeks that lift the upper lip. While good upper lip mobility can help your smile look youthful by showing enough of your top teeth, some people’s smiles show too much gum tissue.
A gummy smile can happen because:
You have short or overactive lip muscles that lift the upper lip too high.
You have small teeth.
Your gum tissue is enlarged or overgrown.
Your bite is misaligned, causing the top teeth to protrude and make the gums more visible.
The good news is that we have solutions for all of these causes for your gummy smile!
BOTOX® - THE QUICK FIX FOR A GUMMY SMILE
While it’s not the appropriate approach for all causes of gummy smile, BOTOX is a fast and effective option. If your smile shows too much gum tissue because your upper lip is overactive, a few quick, virtually painless BOTOX injections may be all you need.
BOTOX will calm selected muscle fibers responsible for lifting your lip toward your nose when you smile. With a tiny amount of medication, usually just a couple of nearly painless injections, we can calm the muscles that lift your lip, helping to keep it from sliding too high while still letting your gorgeous smile shine.
BOTOX is not permanent. It wears off in a few months, so we can always repeat, adjust, or discontinue your treatment depending on how happy you are with your results. While it is considered very safe, BOTOX isn’t right for everyone. Our team at Anderson Family Dental is more than happy to discuss the pros and cons to help you decide if it could help you love your smile!
SURGICAL SOLUTIONS
There are two main surgical solutions we routinely recommend for a gummy smile. Both involve reducing the gum tissue to help your teeth look bigger.
GINGIVECTOMY
We can reshape and reduce your gums with a very common gum surgery called gingivectomy or gingivoplasty.
This is a great solution for patients with an uneven gumline, or whose gums have become overgrown because of chronic gingivitis or certain medications. Many patients need a gingivectomy after they get out of braces, which can cause gums to become inflamed and then overgrown.
With today’s advanced techniques and technology, gingivectomy is a relatively comfortable, fast-healing procedure that can give you great results.
CROWN LENGTHENING
Depending on how your gum tissue sits on your teeth, you may get better results with crown lengthening. While gingivectomy usually refers to a subtle reduction of the gum tissue, crown lengthening can combine several types of procedures, depending on what you need.
In some cases, your gummy smile may have more to do with how the teeth sit in the supporting bone. Adjusting the proportion of gums to teeth in your smile may mean reshaping the gums as well as the underlying bone, as well as restoring your teeth with dental veneers or crowns.
RESTORATIVE SOLUTIONS TO ENHANCE THE LOOK OF YOUR SMILE
Certain types of restorations can help rebuild lost enamel, increasing the size of your teeth relative to your gums. These approaches often make a great complement to surgical solutions that reduce the size of your teeth.
PORCELAIN VENEERS
If your teeth have become worn or shortened, or if you have certain teeth that are undersized, porcelain veneers for a gummy smile may help create more harmony in the look of your teeth.
Veneer teeth can be paired with other therapies like BOTOX or gingivectomy to create your dream smile!
CROWNS
Dental crowns fully cover a tooth, giving it a strong, stable, beautiful new shape. Crowns are commonly a necessary part of the crown lengthening process, depending on how the supporting bone and gum tissue sits over your teeth.
Dental crowns are a great way to create a strong, beautiful, harmonious smile that will last decades to come.
TALK TO US ABOUT CRAFTING YOUR DREAM SMILE
You deserve to feel great about letting your smile shine. If your gummy smile is holding you back, we want you to feel comfortable talking to us about your cosmetic dental concerns.
Call us to schedule your cosmetic dentistry consultation in Winter Park, FL and let’s find the right solution for your gummy smile!