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How Can Botox Help Your Gummy Smile?
If your upper lip rests high above the top of your gum line, it can cause you to become quite self-conscious.
Generally, when smiling, the only parts of the gum that is visible are the small pink triangles that intersect between each tooth. If you have more gum on show, the result is a gummy smile. This can be caused by your lips, gums, or teeth.
Don’t worry, at The London Smile Clinic, we are able to address issues with your gummy smile. Using botox injections, we can alter the way that your lip lifts above your teeth and gums.
Let’s explore how botox can be used to help with your gummy smile.
What Exactly Is Botox?
Botox is the more commonly used name for botulinum toxin type A. Used in small doses, the drug will weaken or paralyse a muscle. It does this by preventing the release of the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine.
Botox is made up of a protein produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. It is safe and is often used to reduce wrinkles on your face and around your lips. When injected directly into your lips, botox will improve their appearance, making them cover more of your gum.
How Can Botox Help Your Gummy Smile?
To address your gummy smile, we’ll inject botox into an area of your lips called the cupid’s bow. This can be found at the centre of your upper lip and is home to the orbicularis oris muscle. This is the muscle used when puckering your lips.
Once the botox starts working, your lip muscles will begin relaxing. This will make them curl slightly and appear slightly bigger. Whenever you smile after having botox, your lips will cover your gums.
How Long Does Botox Last?
Your botox treatment will be relatively short, following which you’ll be able to go about your day as normal, without any need for downtime.
The effects of botox last for between three and four months. Once they have worn off, you’ll need to schedule another appointment, where we’ll inject your lips again.
Having repeat injections of botox will increase its effectiveness, and you’ll be able to go longer between visits.
What Treatments Can Botox Be Used In Conjunction With?
Of course, while botox is great for addressing the position of your lips, there are cosmetic dental procedures that can alter the size and shape of your teeth and gums. These include:
- Using veneers or bonding to reshape your teeth
- Having a surgical or laser gum lift to reduce the visible portion of gum
When you make an appointment with our expert cosmetic dentist, Dr Tim Bradstock-Smith, he’ll be able to assess your teeth, gums, and lips to provide you with the best possible treatment combination to create a winning smile.
Make Your Appointment Today
If you’re ready to see what a difference botox can make to your smile, get in touch today and schedule an appointment.
Laser Gum Lifts – Contouring Your New Smile
Smile, and the whole world smiles with you. But what happens when you’ve got a gummy smile that you’d rather not share? If that’s the situation that you find yourself in, you’re not alone.
Thankfully, we’ve helped countless people who have a gummy smile by restoring a natural balance between teeth, gums, and lips to provide a beautiful and flawless grin. How do we do this? The answer – laser gum lifts.
A laser gum lift is a procedure that helps reshape your gum, meaning there’ll be less on show. Your teeth will beam like never before.
In this guide, we’ll discuss the laser gum lift treatment in more depth.
What Makes a Smile Appear Gummy?
When you look in the mirror and smile, what do you see? If your gums appear larger than your teeth, there could be a few reasons. These include genetics, a reaction to certain medications, or it might just be the way that your teeth and gums appear.
One common problem is gingival hyperplasia or gingival hypertrophy. If you have this, your gums will be enlarged. This, in turn, can make your teeth look too small for your mouth.
Where the gum is enlarged, there is an increased potential risk of gingivitis or the more serious periodontitis.
How Do Laser Gum Lifts Work?
Using state of the art laser technology, our cosmetic dentist Dr Tim Bradstock-Smith will gently sculpt and reshape your gums. This will expose more of the tooth below, creating a better overall aesthetic and a more pleasing smile.
Dr Bradstock-Smith has the hands of an artist and has carried out this procedure numerous times to great effect. The entire treatment can usually be done in just one session.
Is Laser Gum Lift Painful?
When deciding to have any cosmetic dental procedure, you’ll probably want to know whether you can expect any discomfort either during or just after treatment. Fortunately, a laser gum lift is a relatively pain-free treatment option.
This is because as the laser sculpts the gum, and excess tissue is removed, the blood vessels will be sealed automatically. This helps reduce later swelling and bleeding.
Following the procedure, you may experience some mild soreness and tenderness. This can be managed easily with over-the-counter pain medication.
During your recovery, you can brush your teeth and floss as you usually would, however, you should take care to avoid irritating the gums while brushing and use a soft toothbrush.
What Are the Benefits of Laser Gum Lifts?
Laser gum lifts are an effective solution for gummy smiles. Through the use of lasers, it is possible to improve the position and the shape of the gum line so that you achieve a natural smile.
Due to the noninvasive nature of the procedure, you’ll experience significantly less postoperative discomfort with laser gum lifts compared with other routes, meaning recovery time is minimal.
Schedule an Appointment Today
If you’d like to know more about laser gum lifts and whether they could help you, schedule a consultation with us today.
How Surgical Gum Lifts Can Restore Your Confident Smile
Smiling is a non-verbal method of communication. A smile can let others know so much about you. However, if you’ve got a gummy smile, you may not want to show it off.
But there’s no need to miss out on showing the world when you’re happy, at The London Smile Clinic, we have a range of treatment options that will restore the confidence you have in your beautiful smile.
One of the most effective ways to correct a gummy smile is to have a surgical gum lift. This relatively simple cosmetic procedure can dramatically enhance the balance of your gums.
Let’s take a look at this procedure in more detail.
What Is a Gummy Smile?
A gummy smile is one where your gums appear disproportionately large in comparison to your teeth. In many cases, a smile may appear gummier when your lips sit too high revealing more of your gum line.
There are several potential causes of gummy smiles. These include:
- Genetics – The size and shape of your gums may run in your family.
- Gingival hyperplasia – This is when your gum tissue becomes enlarged. The condition can be brought on as a side effect of certain medications.
- Maxillary excess – This is when your jaw is overgrown
- A hyperactive lip muscle – If your upper lip rises too high, it can expose your gums.
The good news is that gummy smiles can be addressed by having a surgical gum lift.
What Can You Expect From a Surgical Gum Lift?
As with any cosmetic treatment carried out at The London Smile Clinic, the process will start with an initial consultation. During this appointment, we’ll talk to you about your teeth, your gums, and any insecurities you may have about your smile.
We’ll then take some images of your teeth and gum sothat we can carefuly plan the treatment you’ll receive.
When it comes to carrying out the surgical gum lift, we’ll decide on how much gum we’ll be removing. We’ll let you know, so you’ll have an idea of what your gums and smile will look like after treatment
Under local anaesthetic, we’ll carefully begin reshaping the gums. This will be skillfully carried out by our expert cosmetic dentist, Dr Tim Bradstock-Smith.
Recovering From a Surgical Gum Lift
Recovery time is relatively short for a surgical gum lift, however, we recommend that you take it easy for the rest of the day that you have the procedure.
If you do experience any discomfort, this can typically be addressed with over-the-counter painkillers such as paracetamol or anti-inflammatory medications such as ibuprofen. Aspirin should be avoided as it may cause bleeding.
For the first few days following surgery, try to eat soft foods and avoid anything that is spicy or that has seeds.
What Other Options Treatments Complement Surgical Gum Lifts?
An alternative to a surgical gum lift is to have laser treatment. This achieves the same results.
To complement your surgical gum lift, you may want to consider veneers or composite bonding. These treatment options will restrike the balance in your smile by reshaping your teeth.
Where the positioning of your lip exposes too much of your gum line, botox injections can be used. These will need to be readministered every three to four months.
Learn More About Surgical Gum Lifts
To learn more about surgical gum lifts and find out whether you’re a suitable candidate, get in touch today.
Combined Orthodontic and Cosmetic Treatments
This lovely patient came to us as she wanted to improve on the discolouration of her teeth.
Clear Aligners and Teeth Veneers
This lovely patient came to us as she was unhappy with her smile. She had been thinking of making changes for quite some time but was anxious about dentistry and wanted to be confident she would be treated by the right dentist.
