
Having an aesthetically pleasant smile is what everyone desires. It helps boost your confidence and social acceptance. You can easily achieve a healthy, and beautiful smile through cosmetic dentistry. Be it correcting a gummy smile, or preparing your mouth for cosmetic procedures, crown lengthening plays a key role.
It is a procedure to expose more of the natural tooth by reshaping or resculpting bone and gum tissues by a highly skilled Los Gatos dentist.
Some common considerations for crown lengthening
Crown lengthening is a procedure designed to reshape your gums at the base of the affected tooth.
This is performed due to the following reasons:
- Cosmetic purpose
- Having extra gum tissues as seen in patients with a gummy smile can make the teeth look unnaturally short.
- Such teeth are more prone to periodontal infections.
- Removal of excess gum tissues can restore and improve the aesthetic appearance of your smile.
- Restoration of damaged teeth
- Most often periodontal disease, dental decay, and trauma can cause severe damage to the teeth.
- Crown lengthening becomes necessary when the damage occurs below the gum line which makes it difficult to access the area for restoring the damaged teeth.
- Fabrication of dental crowns
- Due to insufficient space between the crown and jawbone, dental crowns can harm the gum tissues and the underlying bone.
- Properly fitted crowns allow better oral hygiene and comfort.
In-depth procedure details
Procedure
- Crown lengthening is an outpatient procedure performed under local anesthesia (a numbing agent) to ease pain and discomfort.
- Your dentist will remove any temporary crowns in any of the neighboring teeth.
- Your dentist will make small incision/s (cuts) near the gum tissues (depending on the number of teeth involved) and pull them away to expose the underlying roots and bone.
- According to your individual condition, your dentist may remove only the gum tissues, or may even remove part of your bone as well.
- Bone removal can be done using hand and rotary instruments.
- The surgical area will be thoroughly cleaned with an antiseptic solution.
- The incision will then be closed using sutures and a periodontal pack will be placed over it for healing, and additional protection.
Aftercare
- Your teeth will look visibly longer immediately after surgery.
- Usually, it may take 3 months for the gum tissues to heal completely.
- Your dentist will prescribe medications for pain relief and a chlorhexidine mouth rinse to prevent infection
Conclusion
Crown lengthening is a versatile procedure with many uses and benefits. When performed by a skilled dental professional, you can expect your procedure to go smoothly with enhanced oral health.