GUMMY SMILE

A smile should never make you feel self-conscious; it is the most beautiful way we naturally express happiness and pleasure. But for some adult women and men, they feel they have a ‘gummy smile’.

Clinically known as ‘excessive gingival display’-and no, the name doesn’t make it sound any prettier- exposing too much gum when we smile is often an unfavourable feature. 

Genetics are the most common culprit of a gummy smile. It’s estimated 20-30% of adults feel their smiles expose too much of their gum line.

Though there is not concrete definition to what is considered a gummy smile, as it also depends on the individuals perception, typically 3 to 4 millimetres of expose gum line is considered disproportionate.

What causes a gummy smile? Well the most common reasons are the length and shape of your teeth, the length of your upper lip or the way it moves when you smile, or the length and angle of your jaw compared to the rest of your face.

There are several surgical approaches available to treat this condition, including gum contouring to remove excess gum, lip repositioning, or even orthographic surgery to reposition your jaw. These surgeries require going under local anesthesia and often call for a lengthy recovery time. Thankfully, at Skinfidelity, we offer a minimally invasive and non-surgical procedure to help correct a gummy smile.

We use Botox as a muscle relaxer to inject into the mouth area between the top lip and the nose. This temporally restricts the muscle movement that elevates your lips, allowing you to smile without exposing your gums. The procedure is minimally invasive, very quick, and the results look very natural. We recommend up keeping the Botox treatments every three months in order to maintain your desired results.