We Can Improve Your Gums in Our Cosmetic Dentistry Office

Visiting our cosmetic dentistry office has definite advantages. While we can work with you to make sure your teeth are functioning the best they can, and will always strive to ensure that your mouth is the healthiest it can be, we are also myopically focused on the appearance of your mouth and teeth. We see our role in your life as the provider, or restorer, of the perfect smile. To achieve this, we perform a number of simple, and sometimes extremely complex procedures.

In the modern age of information, with a smile being a powerful weapon in your self-esteem arsenal, many of our patients are intimately familiar with some of these procedures before they ever step foot in our waiting area. From teeth whitening to braces, and from tooth replacements (think about dental implants, dentures, and bridge) to fixing teeth with veneers or dental crowns, we have an array of tools that work to make your smile bigger, brighter, and more attractive. We also work extensively with the gums. Many people do not realize what a pivotal role the gums play in both the health and the look of your teeth. As such we perform a number of procedures that improve the health and esthetic appeal of your gums as well.

Among the procedures that we can perform in our cosmetic dentistry office is a gingivectomy. The gums play a very important role in our mouth. They help hold the teeth in place and so keeping them healthy is essential. Unfortunately, the gums come under relentless attack when you have a gum disease. One example of this is periodontitis, where the disease causes the gums to become separated from the teeth themselves. This leads to the formation of a number of deep pockets within the gum. These pockets are unsightly, to say the least, and also make it virtually impossible to fully clean your teeth. The plaque that builds up in these deep pockets can lead to bacterial infections or additional gum diseases, so it is important to have a cosmetic dentist remove the pockets by performing a gingivectomy.

The procedure is done under local anesthesia, injected at and around the site. The anesthesia is given to numb the gums so that you have very little discomfort. Once the gums are sufficiently numb, we will remove the excess tissues, which is loose, to collapse the pockets. Often times we will then cover the gums with a putty mixture to ensure that they have sufficient time to heal. One advantage of having a cosmetic dentist do your gingivectomy, is that we will ensure the shape of the gums by contouring them as we are performing the surgery.

A gum contouring is often performed in our cosmetic dentistry office for people whose gums are out of shape or are the wrong length. If your gums are too short, for example, we can lengthen them with grafting. Short gums can expose the root and also appear to make the teeth seem too big. If your gums are too long, you will have a gummy smile with teeth that appear too small. In either case, we can fix this with a simple, in-house procedure, known as gum contouring.