Excessive gums, or a gummy smile, can have a dramatic effect on your smile’s overall appearance. When the tissues around your teeth are uneven or cover too much of your tooth structure, it can make your whole smile uneven, even if your teeth are perfectly straight. The good news is that many patients can fix their gummy smiles with cosmetic gum contouring, which involves reshaping your gum line, often with the advantage of laser dental technology.
Common Causes for Gummy Smiles
Though everyone’s smile is unique and the causes for gummy smiles differ, there are several common causes, including;
- The abnormal eruption of your teeth – When your teeth don’t erupt from the jawbone properly, they can result in too much gum tissue covering their roots. The condition can make teeth seem shorter than they actually are.
- A hyperactive lip muscle – In some cases, your gums might not actually cover too much of your teeth. Instead, you may have a hyperactive upper lip muscle that raises your lip higher than normal, exposing too much of your gums.
- The abnormal development of your jaw – When the upper jawbone grows abnormally, such as with a protrusion, the bulge can give your smile an excessively gummy appearance every time it shows.
How Gum Contouring Can Help
Gum contouring is the process of carefully and artistically reshaping your gum line to create a straighter, more attractive appearance. In cases of jawbone or other abnormal dental development, further treatment may be necessary to address the underlying problem. However, for many patients, the problem is simply a cosmetic one, and can be fixed quickly and effectively with laser gum contouring.
