Surgical lip repositioning as an esthetic treatment to improve gummy smile

Abstract

There can be multiple etiologies of “gummy smile.” It might be caused by skeletal reasons like vertical maxillary excess or rotation of the maxilla, or dental reasons such as altered or delayed passive eruption, short clinical crown, dentoalveolar extrusion of maxillary anterior teeth, and extruded incisors or due to soft-tissue reasons like upper lip which is short or hyperactive, periodontal reasons like plaque or drug induced gingival enlargement or due to a combination of these etiologies. Treatment plan of gummy smile is made according to the etiology. In the case reported here, gummy smile was due to a combination of an upper lip hyperactivity and vertical maxillary excess. Hence, surgical lip repositioning was performed successfully. There was no surgical complication with minimal postoperative discomfort and the patient was satisfied with the outcome of the treatment.