A gummy smile — where a disproportionate amount of gum tissue is visible when you smile — is more common than most people realise, and more treatable than most people know. For many patients, it's a source of long-standing self-consciousness that they've simply accepted as fixed. It isn't.
Why a gummy smile happens
The causes vary. Some patients have teeth that are naturally shorter relative to their gum tissue. Others have gums that didn’t fully recede after the adult teeth came through. In both cases, the teeth themselves are often a perfectly normal size — they’re simply obscured. The lip can also play a role: in some patients, a hypermobile upper lip rises higher than average when smiling, exposing more gum regardless of tooth length.
Understanding the cause is the first step. The right treatment depends entirely on what’s driving the gummy appearance — not just that it’s there.
What crown lengthening involves
Crown lengthening is a minor surgical procedure that reshapes the gum and sometimes the underlying bone to expose more of the tooth surface. The result is a longer, more proportionate appearance with no change to the teeth themselves. Recovery is typically straightforward, and the aesthetic improvement is significant.
Other approaches
For cases where lip hypermobility is the primary cause, muscle relaxant injections can reduce the degree of lift when smiling. At Malhotra Dental, we assess the underlying cause before recommending a treatment path — because a surgical solution applied to a muscular problem won’t produce the right result.
A more balanced, confident smile is closer than most patients expect. Book a consultation and we’ll identify exactly what’s driving the appearance and what it takes to change it.
