Crown Lengthening & Gingivectomy

Gummy smile. If you have excessive gingival display, you’re probably familiar with its colloquial synonym. This is when your gums are tall, or your teeth appear short. Both, really. What is happening in many such cases is that an overabundance of soft tissue and bone may be hiding perfectly healthy dental structure. And there is something we can do. At Tribeca Dental Studio in NYC, we offer two treatments for a gummy smile of this type: crown lengthening and gingivectomy.

Note: There can be other causes for a gummy smile, such as worn teeth, where suitable treatments might be veneers or direct bonding.

What is Gingivectomy?

Gingivectomy is a treatment that recontours the gum tissue that covers a portion of the teeth. Dentists use either a laser or a scalpel to perform gingivectomy, but at Tribeca Dental Studio, it’s almost always performed using a laser. This makes it a quick and painless procedure. The laser also sterilizes and cauterizes the gum tissue as we work, which promotes fast healing and recovery. We can also reshape damaged gum tissue with laser gingivectomy in NYC.

What’s Crown Lengthening?

Crown lengthening is a similar treatment to gingivectomy, but it involves recontouring some bone tissue in addition to gum tissue. The more common scenario with excessive gingival display is that the healthy tooth structure we want to expose is hidden under both gum and bone. No worries, we can still use a laser, and it’s still a fairly easy procedure! The dentist may recommend a local anesthesia for crown lengthening, and any residual soreness should be minor and treatable with over-the-counter NSAIDs.

Noncosmetic Crown Lengthening

Occasionally, it’s clinically indicated for us to perform a crown lengthening in order to place a dental crown. This happens when a tooth has deep decay that goes under the bone and gum tissue, but the tooth is otherwise salvageable. You’re typically getting a root canal in this scenario, and your doctor will let you know if you need a crown lengthening.