- Catherine -

A gummy smile can detract from the looks of even a beautiful young teenager like Catherine. When she smiled, people saw too much gum and too little tooth — so Catherine had developed the habit of covering her mouth when she laughed, or spoke to her friends, so they could not see her smile. Of course, this inhibited her socially. She came to us to discover what her options were. We noticed that Catherine’s teeth looked square instead of rectangular — the natural shape of most front teeth — and that a large amount of gum tissue showed when she spoke or smiled.  A simple X-ray confirmed what our examination suggested — that Catherine actually had a lot of tooth hidden under the gum tissue. Normally, when adult teeth replace those of childhood, the gum tissue recedes to reveal the whole tooth. But in some cases, like Catherine’s, this doesn’t happen, so the adult teeth appear square because they remain half-covered. We recommended a gumlift procedure for Catherine to help nature along by revealing her own hidden, but beautiful, teeth. Two weeks later, Catherine’s mom reported that a very confident, smiling young woman had emerged, and that she was delighted in how quickly her daughter had blossomed!