Ideally, your gums should frame your teeth so you show a nice, even amount of gum tissue. However, in reality, a gumline can be uneven, or there can be an excess of gum tissue. Gum contouring is a gum-reshaping procedure that can enhance the appearance of your smile. As part of a smile makeover, this procedure is one of the many services designed to help you achieve your ideal smile.
This guide explains how gum contouring works and when to consider this treatment. We look at the actual procedure and discuss recovery afterward.
What Is Gum Contouring?
Gum contouring can change the overall appearance of your gums. It can be used to reshape one or two gums with uneven contours or to reshape most of the gums you show when smiling. Some tissue is removed during gum contouring to create a more uniform appearance.
Who Can Complete a Gum Contouring Treatment?
Gum contouring is a procedure frequently carried out by a periodontist. At Clock Tower Dental, we have a periodontist on our team, Dr. Richard Nejat.
A periodontist is a specialist dentist with advanced training in treating the structures around your teeth, including your gums.
When to Consider Gum Contouring?
You may wish to consider cosmetic gum surgery if you have any of the following issues.
- A gummy smile is where you show excess gum tissue while smiling
- An uneven gumline
- Overgrown gums from orthodontic treatment
When someone has a gummy smile, their teeth may look too small, but they are covered by excessive gum tissue. Removing this excess gum exposes the proper shape of the Tooth underneath, creating a more cosmetically pleasing smile.
Sometimes, a gumline is uneven so that certain teeth may look smaller than others. We can carefully reshape the gum line so it looks even and attractive.
During orthodontics, gum tissue can sometimes overgrow. Removing this overgrowth can help perfect the results of teeth straightening.
What Is the Procedure for Gum Contouring?
Initially, you will need a dental exam. We must ensure your teeth and gums are generally healthy before you have this procedure. If you have any issues like gum disease or tooth decay, we must address these first.
What to Expect During Your Consultation
During your consultation, Dr. Nejat will gently examine your mouth and listen to your concerns about your smile. He may wish to take digital dental x-rays or digital photographs to plan your treatment, as various factors, such as the amount of bone around your teeth, must be considered.
If there is excess bone, this will need to be reshaped carefully during your treatment. The amount of bone to be removed would be small, and reshaping your jawbone helps provide a better outcome. During planning, assessing how much gum tissue must be removed is also necessary by looking at the gum-to-tooth ratio.
Other factors include the structure of your facial bones and the position of your lips. These must be considered to help achieve a symmetrical and balanced outcome.
We must also assess why you show excess gum tissue. While it is often due to excess tissue covering your teeth, it is sometimes due to a different reason.
Some people have an overactive muscle in their upper lip. When they smile, the muscle pulls the lip up too high, exposing an excess of gum. An overactive muscle requires a slightly different procedure to treat it. If so, we can discuss another treatment that will provide more effective results.
Your Gum Contouring Procedure
The procedure for gum contouring is straightforward and is as follows.
- You will be provided with a local anesthetic to numb your gums, ensuring you feel comfortable during treatment.
- A special pen marks out your new gumline, ensuring we only remove the necessary amount. We always prefer to remove the minimum gum tissue required and can always touch up the results later if needed.
- Your gum tissue and any bone that must be reshaped are removed using laser dentistry. Our advanced dental laser lets us remove gum tissue accurately, quickly, and more comfortably than a scalpel.
Recovery Afterward
Once your treatment is complete, we will provide clear instructions on caring for your mouth while it heals.
Recovery should be smooth and relatively comfortable since we use laser dentistry. The laser quickly seals any blood vessels cut during your treatment, so there is no need for stitches. Healing is faster with less risk of infection.
Some tips to follow during healing include:
- Use over-the-counter pain relief to control any mild soreness.
- Choose foods carefully during initial healing. It’s better to stick to eating foods that are cooler and softer. These include eggs, softly cooked vegetables, yogurt, smoothies, and pasta.
- Avoid eating anything very spicy or hard for about one week after surgery.
- For the first week, avoid anything that could become stuck in your gums, like nuts or seeds.
- Follow our instructions on how to clean your mouth.
- If we recommend an antibacterial mouthwash, please use it as directed.
You should be fine with returning to everyday activities or working a day or two after your treatment. However, everyone is different, so do not try to do too much. We can give you more precise advice based on your oral and general health during your initial consultation.
After the first week, your healing should be well underway, and we will want to see you again so we can check the results carefully. We can always make small adjustments if needed to help perfect the outcome.
At this stage, we can also discuss any other treatments that may be needed, such as veneers or crowns.
Are There Any Risks of Complications with Gum Contouring?
Any surgery carries some risk, but we take every precaution to minimize adverse outcomes during gum-cutting surgery. Possible risks can include:
- Infection
- Regrowth of gum tissue, but this is extremely rare
Are You Interested in Learning More about Gum Recontouring?
Please contact us to schedule your initial consultation with Dr. Richard Nejat or another of our experienced cosmetic dentists, Dr. Michael F Kelly or Dr. Ramin Rayhan.