What’s Gum Plastic Surgery used for?
Gum plastic surgery is used to enhance the look of the gum in cases where the gum is receding or the teeth look too short because of incomplete passive eruption when the tooth crown does’t move while the game recedes naturally to give the look of longer tooth crown.
Gum plastic surgery also involve using surgical intervention to help reduce the gummy smile look in some patients. Some patients show wide band of the upper gum when they smile, Treatments used to alleviate the gummy smile include surgical and none surgical techniques. Botox my be injected in the muscles responsible for elevating the upper lip when we smile. Botox will partially paralyze the muscles so they will not be efficient in raising the upper lip while smiling. The problem with using Botox is that it should be used every 3-4 months.
How’s Gum Plastic Surgery correct the Receding Gums?
Several surgical techniques are used to put the gum tissue back where is was before the recession. Each method has its own pros and cons. Selction of the procedure depend on the case and the training of the surgeon. The following procedures are among the many surgical techniques used to correct receding gums:
- Connect tissue graft where a tissue stripe harvested from the hard palate of the same patient is used to cover the exposed root surface.
- Acellular dermal graft where donor’s skin tissue is used to cover the exposed root surface/s. This procedure is considered safe and good when many teeth are involved in the surgery.
- Gingival tissue sliding, with or without graft material. Here, the gum tissue near the receded gum area is partially reflected and moved to cover the exposed roots. The gingival tissue will be stabilized using sutures, collagen membranes, PRF membranes or combination of these.
Is There Any Surgical Treatment To Correct A Gummy Smile?
Surgery is the treatment of choice for long lasting results. Three surgical procedures may be used to correct the gummy smile:
- Upper alveolar bone surgery to push the upper teeth with the supporting bone upward so the gums will no longer show while smiling widely.
- Surgery to the upper lip or the muscles responsible for elevating the upper lip aiming to bring the upper lip down.
- Intra Oral gum surgery where a band of the gingiva on the facial aspect of the upper teeth is removed and the top part of the gum incision is sutured to the lower incision. This procedure will bring the upper lip down and correct the gummy smile look.
How does Time and Gravity Affect Gummy Smiles?
As we get older, the muscle tone will be less so that the muscles responsible for elevating the upper lip will be less efficient is showing the upper gums while smiling. also, over the years, the effect of gravity will pull the upper lip down making a natural correction to the gummy smile. People who are willing to wait will have natural improvement of their gummy smile look after the age of 50.
What’s About Short Teeth?
Here, we are talking about normal size teeth where the gum tissue covers considerable amount of the crown part of the teeth. Crown lengthening procedures are used to exposed the teeth areas hidden under the gum tissue. This is a surgical procedure that involves cutting the excessive gum tissue and in some cases cutting part of the bone around the teeth. When soft tissue surgery will give a satisfactory result, Laser surgery might be used as it will cause less bleeding and can be very precise in giving the best looking outcome.
Dr. Mohammad Khalifeh is an expert is treating receding gums and gummy smiles.