How to Correct Gummy Smiles with Orthodontics: The Ultimate Guide to a Confident Smile

It’s a beautiful day on the beach and everyone gathers for a photo. The day’s been perfect and there’s big smiles all around.

Later that night you look at the photos. Despite the amazing backdrop of white sand and crashing waves, you can’t stop zooming in on your smile. And all you’re thinking to yourself is “why do my gums show so much?”

A “gummy smile” is a common aesthetic concern that many patients bring up during their orthodontic consultation. It’s not so much about chasing perfection, but rather wanting a smile that’s well balanced. Even if your teeth are healthy and straight, a disproportionate amount of gums showing can make your smile feel off.

The good news is that if you’ve been finding yourself searching for how to correct gummy smiles with orthodontics, you’re in the right place!

In this article, we’re going to explore a few of the things that can cause a gummy smile, along with some of the orthodontic solutions that can make a real difference. 

What is a Gummy Smile?

So, what is a gummy smile anyway? In clinical terms, it's an excessive gingival display. In common terms, it just means there’s a noticeable amount of top gums showing in a person’s smile.

Some have tried to attach a number to the exact amount your gums need to be showing for a smile to be classified as a gummy smile. In reality, there’s not a true measure. What actually matters is how your smile looks and feels to you.

If you’ve already spent some time researching gummy smile causes, you’ve probably realized that there isn’t just one reason why this happens. There could be any number of factors from your teeth positioning, to how your jaws align, to the muscles around your lips, or any combination of these.

The key to figuring out how to fix a gummy smile is first figuring out the true cause of it. Once there’s an accurate diagnosis, it’s much more clear which gummy smile correction options make sense.   

The Role of Smile Design Orthodontics

Done properly, orthodontics isn’t about just straightening teeth. The best orthodontists carefully  consider how every piece of a person’s smile fits and works together. Tooth position, gum display, lip movement, facial features, and proportions all play a part in how a smile looks and feels. With smile design orthodontics, the goal is to bring harmony and balance to a person’s smile, creating a natural feeling result.

At Cardall Orthodontics, we focus on the gums a lot when designing treatment plans, regardless of whether the patient has a gummy smile or not. This is because the balance between your gums and teeth plays a big role in how polished your final result looks. After all, your gums are what frame your teeth.

This is where aesthetic orthodontics comes in, because the small details matter. Orthodontics isn’t just about giving you a healthy smile that functions well; it’s also about giving you a smile that feels great and gives you confidence as you navigate life.

An example of how we lean into aesthetic smile design, is after braces or clear aligners treatment we offer complimentary laser gum contouring, because once your teeth have settled into their final positions, it can reveal your gumline isn’t perfectly even. Laser gum contouring isn’t going to make it easier to chew or create a more comfortable bite, but it is going to help you feel even better about your smile and make it look more balanced, symmetrical, and polished.

When we’re determining the best gummy smile fix, our techniques and methods are rooted in smile design orthodontics. These principles become incredibly valuable for restoring your facial balance and giving you the best smile possible.

Treatment Options for Gummy Smiles

If you found this blog by searching something like “how to fix gummy smile” or “fix gummy smile,” then this is the section you’ve been looking for, so let’s get right to it!

Since gummy smiles don’t have a universal cause, gummy smile correction relies on first figuring out what’s causing it and then moving forward with a treatment that addresses the source of the problem. So what are some of these potential treatment options?

Braces and Aligners

Braces and aligners are a great place to start treatment when the cause of the gummy smile is the upper front teeth sitting too low.

Braces and aligners are designed in a way that allows forces to be applied in many different directions, so you can move teeth from side to side, rotate them, move them forward or backward, and even move them up into the gums. This vertical movement is called intrusion. By applying vertical forces to your teeth through braces or aligners, your teeth can be moved up slightly, which moves your gumline up, giving you a smile that’s more balanced. 

TADs: A Non-Surgical Approach
When your upper front teeth require more vertical movement than can be achieved from braces or aligners alone, there’s another non-surgical orthodontic treatment method that can be used.

TADs, or temporary anchorage devices, are small, temporary anchors placed in the jaw bone that provide a stable point for vertical force to be applied. By placing this anchor point, a more controlled and more significant vertical movement of the upper teeth can be achieved. For the right patient, this can be a highly effective gummy smile fix that can reduce the need for surgical orthodontics.

Laser Gum Contouring 

Tooth positioning isn't always the problem. One of the examples of this is when there’s truly an excessive amount of gums or an uneven gumline. When this is the case, laser gum contouring can be used to remove and reshape the excess gums, improving smile aesthetics and creating a more symmetrical smile.

Jaw Surgery

Jaw surgery comes into consideration when the gummy smile is a symptom of a more severe skeletal imbalance of the jaws. Not only could a jaw misalignment create an excessive gingival display, it could also cause all kinds of additional issues like uneven tooth wear, bite strain, difficulty chewing and even problems with speech.

For these types of cases, this is where functional orthodontics for patients who are still growing, or surgical orthodontics for more severe adult skeletal cases might enter into the conversation.

However, gummy smile surgery is less common than people think and there are a lot of situations where a pretty significant gummy smile can actually be corrected using more conservative approaches like TADs.   

Lip-Focused Options: Botox and Lip Repositioning Surgery

There are other circumstances where the issue isn’t with the teeth, gums or jaw. Well what else is there? The lips of course!

In some cases, the problem is that the upper lip lifts higher than normal when you smile. This could be because the muscles are hyperactive, or because the lip is shorter than it needs to be to cover the gums.

One of the ways that patients might solve this issue is through Botox. In fact, what brought you to this very blog might be your research of gummy smile botox or botox gummy smile.

Botox for gummy smile treatment works by relaxing the muscles of the upper lip so that they don’t lift as high. This is an effective way to reduce gum show, but it is important to note that Botox is a temporary solution that only lasts a few months before needing retreatment.

Another option for addressing lip concerns is lip repositioning surgery. This procedure limits how much the upper lip is able to lift when you’re smiling and unlike Botox is a permanent surgical approach. 

It’s important to figure out the true cause of your gummy smile, because if the underlying issues are structural then orthodontic treatment could create a better long term outcome. However, if the main reason for your gummy smile is truly an issue with the lip muscles, then these treatments of Botox or lip repositioning surgery could be a good way to bring your smile back into balance. 

Conclusion

If you’ve been wondering how to correct gummy smiles with orthodontics, you should be able to walk away from this blog with a good idea of what causes a gummy smile, and what gummy smile correction options exist.

Maybe you’ll just need braces to fix your gummy smile, or maybe you’ll need a customized treatment plan that combines orthodontic treatment with other cosmetic dentistry solutions for a full smile makeover. Whatever the plan, an orthodontist is well equipped to diagnose the causes of your gummy smile and figure out which smile makeover techniques or aesthetic dental procedures will be required to get you the best result possible.

At Cardall Orthodontics, we carefully evaluate the relationship between your tooth position, bite alignment, lip movement, and facial balance. Once we’ve determined the underlying factors impacting your smile we are able to put together an effective treatment plan to help you achieve the smile you want. 

So, if you’ve found yourself typing in the search bar, best orthodontist Bakersfield, and you want to explore what gummy smile correction could look like for you, then schedule a consultation with us today and we’ll help get you on a path to a brighter and more balanced smile!