Crown Lengthening

Crown lengthening is a procedure where the position of the gums is adjusted to expose more of the tooth. In some cases only gum tissue is removed and in other cases bone is removed as well. Since each patient is unique, our periodontist makes an individual plan to lengthen your teeth.

There are 2 purposes to crown lengthening. Aesthetic crown lengthening is where one has either short teeth and/or gummy smile or an uneven smile. The amount of gum tissue that is removed depends on multiple factors like your smile line, lip position, and the number of teeth involved in order to create a smooth gradual curve to your smile. Using CBCT technology, intraoral scanning and digital design software, we are able to create a digital mock up of what you dream smile will look like. It also allows us to determine if a laser gingivectomy is needed or if there is excess bone that needs to be removed.

Functional crown lengthening is needed when a tooth the amount of remaining healthy tooth structure remaining is not enough to support a healthy crown. This may be due to decay or a fracture beneath the gum line. In these case, one of our periodontists will reshape your gum and bone to expose more healthy tooth structure to allow for your dentist to provide a healthy stable restoration.