A gummy smile can be embarrassing to some people, because a gummy smile causes your teeth to look very small, and you show a lot of gums when you’re smiling. Now, this can create some form of embarrassment when you are smiling, and it may cause a lack of confidence, or self-confidence may decrease if you’ve got a gummy smile.
What is a Gummy Smile?
A gummy smile refers to a smile where a significant portion of the gums is visible above the upper teeth. While some gum visibility is natural and aesthetically pleasing, a gummy smile occurs when there’s more gum tissue showing than typically desired, which can affect the overall balance and harmony of the smile.
A gummy smile isn’t necessarily a medical issue, but treatment can improve the aesthetic appearance of the individual’s smile, as well as their overall self-confidence.
What You Can Do About Your Gummy Smile
This really depends on why you’ve got a gummy smile. It could be a few reasons. One, you have got excessive gums and you’ve got too much gums showing. The other reason why you could have a gummy smile is because you’ve got a hyperactive lip, which means when you smile your lips goes up really, really high and you show a lot of gums.
Now in this case, gum lift might help just to an extent, but the major issue will be the muscles of your lip, and the treatment for that might be something else. Another reason why you could have a gummy smile is because the size and shape of your teeth is actually too small. If you increase the size and shape of your teeth, then there’s better proportion when you smile and therefore this will decrease your gummy smile.
What is A Gum Lift?
One of my favourite procedures in treating gummy smiles is to do this thing called the gum lift. As the meaning implies, we are actually lifting up the gums to show more teeth and fewer gums, so that way when you’re smiling, the frame around your teeth will be a lot less obvious and you get a nice and beautiful smile.
What does a gum lift do? As the name implies, lift up the gums to show less gums. There’s various ways to actually lift the gums up. One would be the traditional method where the dentist uses a blade, a scalpel, to cut the gums, and you might bleed quite a bit, and at the same time you get a nice smile. However, there’s gonna be some pain and discomfort and healing might take a few days, even up to a week. Now there’s another way to do gum lift, which is to use a very specialized laser. The laser can lift your gums up very gently and healing is actually quite instantaneous because there’s no bleeding and there’s no scarring. You might get some slight discomfort towards the end, but it’s definitely nowhere near the traditional method.
The thing I love about gum lifting is that it creates so much value in a person’s smile. It gives you the potential to actually have a beautiful smile without doing much else except lifting your gum slightly.
Consulting Your Dentist
So if you have a gummy smile, seek a dental professional to find out why you’ve got a gummy smile. As I mentioned it could be because of the size and the shape of your teeth, it’s too small, or it could be because you’ve got a hypermobile lip, or it could be just because you’ve got too much gums.
Depending on the reason of your gummy smile, a dental professional can help you to point you in the right direction. Hopefully we’ve managed to help you in terms of your gummy smile. And if you do suffer from gummy smile, or you know someone who would like to improve their gummy smile, share this with them because they might be enlightened and they might know exactly what to do next time when they see their dentist.
Summary
- A gummy smile can lead to various types of aesthetic concerns, as well as reduced self-confidence when smiling.
- It may result from excessive gum tissue, a hyperactive lip that lifts too high when smiling or teeth that are proportionally too small.
- Gum lifts, using traditional methods or lasers, can reshape gums to reveal more teeth and less gum. Lasers offer a gentler option, with minimal discomfort and faster healing.
- Consulting a dentist is essential to identify the cause of a gummy smile and determine the most suitable treatment, whether it’s a gum lift or other solutions like addressing lip mobility or tooth size.
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