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Before – A patient with a high lip line and a gummy smile.
After – The patient’s lip was repositioned and brought down slightly to show less gum.
Gummy Smile Correction
While healthy, beautiful teeth and gums are essential for an attractive smile, overexposed gums make many people feel self-conscious and unattractive.
In 1988, gum specialist Dr. Alex A. Farnoosh developed a simple procedure to correct a gummy smile that has helped thousands of people from Los Angeles, around the U.S., and across the world smile more confidently.
This lip lowering procedure is just one of the treatments he offers for gummy smile correction at his Beverly Hills practice.
You can start enjoying attractive gums and smiling with total confidence when you choose gummy smile correction surgery. Request consultation with celebrity periodontist and cosmetic dentist Dr. Farnoosh, or call (310) 928-1796 to set up an appointment.
“Dr. Farnoosh did an exceptional job on my lip lowering surgery!! The result is amazing; it changed my life. I used to feel really self-conscious whenever I wanted to laugh in public. After the surgery I can laugh whenever and wherever I want. All my friends tell me my teeth look great and I don’t show excess gum anymore!! I am really happy I have done my research and found Dr. Farnoosh!!!” — Vivian Z. on Yelp.com
What Is a Gummy Smile?
In a perfect smile, the upper lip sits just above the top of the teeth. A “gummy smile,” however, exposes a larger than average amount of gum tissue and has a noticeably disproportionate gum-to-tooth ratio. Gummy smiles affect about 15% of all Americans, especially women and younger people.
Gummy Smile Before and After Photos
Notice before gummy smile correction, this patient showed approximately the same amout of gum tissue as front teeth. After surgery, the patient’s teeth are the focus of her smile.
What Causes a Gummy Smile?
A gummy smile can be cause by a variety of factors. Common causes include:
- A hypermobile lip (lips pull back too far when you smile)
- Insufficient lip length
- Maxilla protrusion (overbite)
- Vertical maxillary excess
- Altered passive eruption of teeth (short teeth)
- Overgrowth of gum tissue
- Abnormal tooth eruption
Your Personalized Gummy Smile Correction Plan
In the past, the only gummy smile correction procedure available involved invasive, risky jaw surgery (orthognathic surgery). But today, there are many options for people who want to correct a gummy smile.
A pioneer in these techniques, Dr. Farnoosh offers both surgical and non-surgical options. He also offers gum bleaching to enhance the appearance of darkened or discolored gums.
At your consultation, Dr. Farnoosh will develop a personalized treatment plan that will begin with determining the underlying cause of your gummy smile.
Once he determines the appropriate treatment plan, he will walk you through the steps of your treatment so you know what to expect during the procedure and afterward. He will take the time to answer all your questions to help you feel comfortable about moving forward.
Review his Gummy Smile Correction FAQ for details about gummy smile treatment and recovery.
Expert in Gummy Smile & Dark Gum Correction
- Certified by the American Board of Periodontology
- International authority on cosmetic dentistry
- Invented minimally invasive gummy smile correction techniques
- Pioneered patented gum lightening treatment
- Authored 40+ works in medical journals
- Trains dentists in gum bleaching and gummy smile treatments
- Transformed smiles of thousands of patients around the world
Improvements from Gummy Smile Correction
You probably already know why you are considering treatment for your gummy smile, but it can be very motivating to see exactly what treatments can do. Gummy smile treatment may provide one or more of the following improvements:
- Allow your teeth to be the focus of your smile
- Expose more teeth more evenly
- Improve confidence when you’ve always been afraid to smile
- Enhance fullness of the upper lip
- Create a smile that looks relaxed
- Achieve harmony and balance between your smile and the rest of your face
Gummy Smile Before and After Photos
This patient is an excellent example of how lip lowering surgery enhances the appearance of the upper lip making it look fuller and more relaxed, in addition to reducing gum exposure.
Gummy Smile Surgery
More than 25 years ago, Dr. Farnoosh developed a lip lowering procedure that he performs as an alternative to invasive jaw surgery (orthognathic surgery).
This treatment involves repositioning the upper lip so that less of the gum line is exposed when smiling. Lip lowering requires a significantly shorter recovery period than jaw surgery and has substantially fewer risks and side effects.
In most cases, Dr. Farnoosh performs lip lowering surgery using only a local anesthetic. First, he makes a set of careful incisions in the existing tissue that connects your lip to your gums.
These incisions are made entirely inside the mouth in the gum and upper lip. Then, he uses a technique that limits the vertical movement of the upper lip, which will keep the lip closer to your teeth when you smile.
Depending on your unique needs, Dr. Farnoosh may combine lip lowering surgery with other gummy smile treatments (described below).
Other Gummy Smile Treatment Options
Dr. Farnoosh offers the following gummy smile treatments for patients who are not ready for surgery or for those who would benefit from combining these treatments with lip lowering:
Gum Contouring/Gum Leveling
Gum contouring, whether with a scalpel or a laser, may help improve a gummy smile in certain cases. This option removes excess gum tissue around the teeth so that more of the tooth is visible, making the teeth look longer and more proportionate to the gum line or evening out the gum line.
Typically, this procedure works best when used in conjunction with the lip lowering technique.
BOTOX® Cosmetic Injections
BOTOX treatments may be a good temporary solution for people who aren’t yet ready to commit to a lip lowering procedure. Injecting BOTOX into the muscles responsible for a “hypermobile” lip reduces the strong pulling effect and allows the upper lip to rest over the gum tissue.
Ideally, BOTOX can be used after surgery to help keep the lip muscles relaxed.
How Much Does Gummy Smile Correction Cost?
The cost for gummy smile correction will depend on the treatment that suits you best. While BOTOX injections are the most affordable, this treatment provides temporary results and therefore isn’t a long-term solution.
The costs of other procedures such as lip lowering depend on the specific patient and amount of correction needed. While the amount of gum tissue that shows does not affect the cost, the specific cause of your gummy smile does.
Depending on the complexity of the case, the cost for gummy smile treatment could be as low as $2,000. To help make your procedure affordable, Dr. Farnoosh offers convenient financing options through a leading healthcare credit company.
Revision Gummy Smile Surgery
Several dentists who are not experts in gummy smile surgery offer procedures they advertise will improve the appearance of a gummy smile.
Unfortunately, in many cases these dentists will not be able to achieve the results their patients expect. In these cases of failed gummy smile surgery, Dr. Farnoosh is often called upon to perform revision procedures because he has performed numerous procedures on hundreds of patients.
If you have had gummy smile surgery and are not happy with the result, please get in touch with us for an individual consultation.