A gummy smile, also known as the excessive gingival display is a smile that shows an excessive amount of gum under the upper lip.
* What causes a gummy smile and how can you fix it?
1) A Bad Bite:
One of the hereditary things that can cause a gummy smile can be a bad bite. When your top jaw does not align properly with your bottom jaw.
2) Hyperactive Upper Lip:
A hyperactive lip occurs when the muscles in the upper lip and under the nose are well, hyperactive. This repeated overuse of those muscles can cause the top lip to raise and expose gum tissue.
3) Too much Gum Tissue:
The most common cause. During the eruption of permanent teeth, sometimes there is an overgrowth of gum tissue that covers too much of the teeth. This will result in Gummy Appearance.
Treatment:
* Scaling & Root planning:
When a gummy smile is caused by inflamed and infected gums, often the best way to treat it is to start with a deep professional dental cleaning called scaling and root planning.
* Gum lift or crown lengthening:
If the cause of the gummy smile is simply too much gum tissue covering the teeth, a gum lift or a crown lengthening may be the best option.
The gum tissue around the teeth and restructures the gum line to be higher, showing off more pearly whites.
* Lip lowering
The name of this treatment is somewhat misleading….as your dentist will not actually lower your lip.
Instead, a small section of the gum tissue under the upper lip is removed and the top and bottom are stitched together, creating a shorter-looking lip.
* Botox injection:
The latest treatment nowadays and very effective.
Photography: Walid Obaid
