Surgical Solutions to Correct Aesthetic Dental Concerns

• Crown Lengthening/Gum Reshaping (to correct a “Gummy Smile”)
• Root Coverage (to correct gum recession)
• Ridge Augmentation (to correct gum indentation)
• Orthodontic Extrusions (to preserve teeth fractured below the gum line in preparation for orthodontics)

Periodontal disease is not just a medical condition; it can also affect your appearance – especially your smile. How you feel about yourself is directly related to your physical and emotional well being. How you see yourself in the mirror impacts how you feel about yourself. A winning smile can be as important to feeling good as is good dental health.

Your smile is really a combination of the appearance of your teeth, your gums and your lips. For this reason, we offer our patients numerous cosmetic periodontal procedures which are frequently combined with our dental implant procedures used to replace missing teeth.

Crown Lengthening (to correct a “Gummy Smile”)
Gum reshaping surgery, sometimes called Crown Lengthening, corrects the appearance of short teeth by removing excess gum tissue to expose more of the crown of the tooth. Your teeth may not be “too short” at all, you may just have too much gum tissue covering your teeth and hiding a beautiful smile. In addition, gum reshaping surgery is sometimes used to correct deformities caused by gum disease. Crown Lengthening provides some of the most striking and immediate results for our patients.

Root Coverage/Periodontal Plastic Surgery (to correct gum recession)
Some patients feel that their smile is spoiled because their teeth look too long. Exposed roots, generally caused by receding gums, can make teeth appear too long and asymmetrical in appearance. This can make you look much older than your true age. Your teeth even may start to feel sensitive to hot and cold foods or drinks. Our root coverage procedure, called Soft Tissue Grafting, protects teeth and gives you a healthier, more attractive, symmetrical and youthful smile.

Ridge Augmentation (to correct gum indentation)
The loss of one or more teeth can cause an indentation in your gums and your jaw bone. Frequently, this looks unnatural and detracts from the appearance of your smile. Dr. Levine has a long, successful history in using a procedure called Ridge Augmentation to recapture the natural contour of your gums and jaw. This gives you the appearance of a new tooth that is natural-looking, easy to clean and beautiful, giving you a brilliant and symmetrical smile.

Orthodontic Extrusion
This is a crown lengthening technique where a cosmetic outcome is desired. The procedure is used primarily where a tooth which has fractured or decayed below the gum line. Orthodontic brackets are bonded from the tooth to be treated to adjacent teeth. A minimally invasive surgical procedure is done upon completion to adjust the gum and bone level on only the tooth being treated (unlike osseous crown lengthening where at least one tooth on either side needs surgery). The entire procedure may take two to four months or more to complete prior to a crown being placed.  This procedure converts a three-tooth (osseous crown lengthening procedure) to a single tooth procedure which maintains gingival (gum) symmetry and esthetics.