Gummy Smile Correction

Gummy Smile is a condition when your gums show too much when you smile making your teeth appear smaller. This may have a negative impact on your smile. Gummy smiles can be corrected by changing and reshaping the gum line that adds grace to your smile. Smiles look gummy if the teeth, gums and upper jaw are not in proportion.

Possible Causes

Some of the probable causes of a gummy smile are

• Hyperactivity of the muscle that controls the movement of upper lip resulting in the upper lip to rise more than normal.
• Jaw and the upper lip are joined very closely
• Small or undersized teeth
• Excess gum tissue.

Possible Treatments

• Myotomy Operation: When the elevation muscle is hyper active or over developed, a myotomy surgery is performed to weaken the muscle between the upper lip and gums. This process provides permanent results. It is performed by a plastic surgeon under the effect of local anesthesia and takes only an hour.
• Botox Injections: The over developed elevation muscle can be weakened by BOTOX injections in the elevation muscle between upper lips and gums. This ensures that the upper lip does not lift too much thus revealing your gums when you smile. Approximately this requires 10 units of Botox. The results last for 4-9 months after which the injections need to be repeated.
• Detach Upper Lip: Due to the overdevelopment of the join between upper lips and gum, gums are exposed even when you are not smiling. By decreasing the join, gummy smile can be corrected.
• Gingivectomy: If you have overgrown gum tissue, a Gingivectomy i.e. removing excess gum tissue or Gingivoplasty i.e. improving the appearance of the surrounding gum tissue increases the surface area of the teeth.
• Cosmetic Dentistry: If the teeth are too small compared to the gums then cosmetic dentistry procedures like attaching crowns can be helpful to increase tooth surface area.

In order to get a pleasing end result the most important step is a professional and accurate examination. We provide a wide range of cosmetic as well as dentistry options for correcting gummy smile.