If you have a “gummy smile”, a crown lengthening treatment can help improve its appearance and functionality. Your teeth may appear too short as a result of excess gingival tissue, but with comprehensive planning and surgical precision, we can alter your gums to produce a smile you’ll love. The experts at Poulos, Somers & Marshall perform gentle crown lengthening procedures to transform smiles and restore confidence. Call us today or contact us online to schedule a consultation in Denver!
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Crown lengthening has a number of great benefits. If you have a “gummy smile” with excessive gum tissue, your teeth can look small and will not be properly proportioned for your mouth. This can lead to issues with self-confidence and self-esteem, particularly if you have other cosmetic dental issues like stained or misshapen teeth.
With crown lengthening, some of this tissue can be trimmed back to expose more of your natural tooth structure. This enhances the aesthetic appeal of your smile. In addition, crown lengthening can make your smile more symmetrical by evening out the gum tissue.
Its benefits aren’t just cosmetic, however. Because crown lengthening exposes more of your tooth for brushing and flossing, you will be able to clean your teeth more easily and reduce your risk of tooth decay and gum disease.
Crown lengthening provides very fast results, too. Your smile will look brand-new after just a single quick appointment with one of the Denver doctors at the office of Poulos, Somers & Marshall, and you can feel confident when smiling, laughing, and speaking.
Crown lengthening is done using local anesthesia, and our periodontists will be as gentle as possible during treatment. The crown lengthening procedure involves pulling the gums away from your teeth in order to expose the roots and surrounding bone. Once this is done, your gum line will be repositioned to expose the full contour of your enamel, creating an immediate and dramatic improvement to the appearance of your smile. Crown lengthening can usually be done in just one appointment, making this an extremely efficient procedure to enhance your smile.
After your gum lengthening treatment is complete, your doctor at Poulos, Somers & Marshall will provide you with a comprehensive set of recovery instructions. Make sure to follow these carefully to ensure you recover properly.
The overall recovery time for crown lengthening usually is about 3 months. For the first few days after your procedure, you will experience pain and swelling, and intermittent bleeding may occur. You may use prescription painkillers, if issued, to help with discomfort. Ice packs and over-the-counter pain relievers can also help during this time.
You will need to eat soft foods, and avoid brushing the gums. You can rinse your mouth and use a water flosser to remove food particles from your gums. After about 7-10 days post-surgery, you will come back to our Denver office to have your stitches removed.
After 4-6 weeks after your surgery, you will come in for another appointment to check your healing progress. At which point it is normal to be experiencing only minor discomfort. After about 3 months, your mouth will be completely healed.
Most patients choose crown lengthening for cosmetic purposes, as mentioned above. Crown lengthening is the best way to treat a “gummy” smile and restore your confidence in your appearance.
However, you may also need to choose crown lengthening before other procedures, such as having veneers or a dental crown placed. Because dental prostheses like crowns and veneers are attached directly to your enamel, they require a certain amount of your tooth to be exposed and prepared.
If you do not have enough exposed enamel for a veneer, crown or another similar treatment due to a gummy smile, you may need to have crown lengthening to prepare your tooth for the procedure. Your doctor at Poulos, Somers & Marshall will discuss this with you during your consultation.
Esthetic crown lengthening is an effective, quick way to improve the appearance of your smile. At Poulos, Somers & Marshall, we pride ourselves on transforming our patients’ smiles and restoring their confidence. If you have a gummy smile that you would like to correct, give our Denver team a call today at 303-832-4867 to discuss your options with one of our experts.
