Gummy Smile Treatment
Teaneck, NJ & Roselle, NJ
 If your smile shows more gum tissue than you’d like, you’re not alone, and there are several treatment options depending on what’s actually causing it. RJ Dental treats gummy smiles in Teaneck and Roselle, NJ for patients who feel self-conscious about excessive gingival display and want a more balanced smile. The treatment that’s right for you depends entirely on what’s causing the gummy smile, and figuring that out is the first thing we do at the consultation.
A gummy smile, clinically called excessive gingival display, refers to a smile that reveals more than about 3 millimeters of gum tissue when smiling at full width. It’s a common cosmetic concern, and it has multiple possible causes, including short clinical crowns, an overactive upper lip, the underlying bone structure of your upper jaw, or some combination of these. The treatments differ significantly depending on which cause is at play. A surgical fix for one cause doesn’t address another.
That’s the part patients sometimes miss when they read about gummy smile treatment online. There’s no single procedure that fixes every case. Crown lengthening works when the clinical crowns are too short. Gum contouring works when the gum tissue is overgrown. Lip-related causes need a different approach entirely, and some skeletal cases benefit from referral to a maxillofacial specialist. This page walks through the causes, what we offer in-house, and how we figure out which treatment matches your situation. Consultations for cosmetic dentistry are available at both offices.
On This Page
What Causes a Gummy Smile
A gummy smile isn’t a single condition with a single cause. It’s the visible result of one of several different anatomic factors, and identifying which factor is driving the display is what determines the right treatment. Most patients have one dominant cause, though some have a combination. We see four primary categories.
1. Short Clinical Crowns (Altered Passive Eruption)
The clinical crown is the visible part of the tooth above the gum line. For some patients, the gum tissue covers more of the tooth than it should, which makes the teeth look short and the gums look prominent. In most cases this is from altered passive eruption, where the gum tissue didn’t fully retract during normal development. The teeth are full-size underneath; they’re just partially hidden. Crown lengthening, which reshapes the gum tissue and sometimes the underlying bone, exposes the natural tooth length and reduces the gum display in one step.
2. Overgrown or Inflamed Gum Tissue
Some patients have excess gum tissue (gingival hyperplasia) from genetics, medications, or chronic inflammation. The tooth length is normal, but the gum tissue is bulkier than it should be. For these cases, gum contouring with our soft tissue laser removes the excess tissue without touching bone, and the recovery is faster than full crown lengthening. The cause matters: if medication is contributing, we coordinate with your physician about whether the medication can be adjusted.
3. Hyperactive Upper Lip
For some patients, the teeth and gums are normal, but the upper lip lifts higher than average when smiling, exposing more gum tissue than it should. This is a lip mobility issue, not a dental one, and the treatment is different. Options vary based on how pronounced the lip mobility is, and we discuss the right approach at your consultation. In some cases, treatment is straightforward; in others, referral to a specialist is the right path.
4. Vertical Maxillary Excess
The least common but most significant cause is vertical maxillary excess, where the upper jaw bone is anatomically taller than average. This pushes the teeth and gums lower relative to the lip, producing a gummy smile that no soft-tissue or laser treatment can fully resolve. Cases like this typically need evaluation by a maxillofacial surgeon who can determine whether orthognathic surgery is appropriate. We make that referral and stay involved in coordinating your overall treatment.
Why Diagnosis Comes First
The reason we lead with diagnosis is that treatment costs, recovery time, and outcomes are different for each cause. Crown lengthening on a patient whose real issue is lip mobility won’t fix the problem. Gum contouring on a patient with vertical maxillary excess will yield disappointing results. Photos of your smile at rest, at conversation, and at full smile, combined with measurements of your gum line and lip movement, are what we use to sort out which category your case falls into.
Your Care Team for Gummy Smile Treatment in NJ
Gummy smile treatment at RJ Dental starts with the diagnostic visit, where we identify which of the causes is driving the display and what treatment makes sense. From there, the procedural side draws on different parts of our four-dentist team depending on the case.
For soft tissue cases handled with our laser (gum contouring, crown lengthening that doesn’t involve bone reshaping), Dr. Jeannine Stephenson-Buffong, DMD leads the cosmetic side. She trained at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, completed a GP residency at the University of Connecticut, and holds certification in laser dentistry and Invisalign. More on Dr. Stephenson-Buffong’s bio. The soft tissue laser shortens the procedure and shortens recovery for gum contouring cases.
For cases that need bone reshaping along with the gum work (full crown lengthening for altered passive eruption), Dr. Shahin Ghobadi leads on the surgical side. His postgraduate Oral Surgery residency at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center and his AAOMS membership are what let us handle the surgical version of this procedure in-house. Details on Dr. Ghobadi’s bio.
Dr. Richard E. Buffong, DMD, FICOI, the practice owner, oversees the broader cosmetic treatment plan including any restorative work like crowns or veneers that follows the gum-line correction, with full background on Dr. Buffong’s bio. Dr. Linda Hunponu-Wusu, DMD trained at UMDNJ in 2006 and contributes to the restorative and cosmetic side of the practice, with her bio online for reference.
Diagnosis and Treatment Path
 The process for gummy smile treatment runs in two phases. First we figure out what’s actually causing your gummy smile, then we match the treatment to the cause. The diagnostic visit is the same regardless of cause; the treatment varies.
1. Diagnostic Visit and Smile Analysis
The first appointment is about understanding what we’re looking at. We take photos of your smile at three positions: rest (lips relaxed), conversation (slight smile), and full smile (maximum lip lift). We measure how much gum tissue shows, how much your lip moves between rest and full smile, the length of your clinical crowns, and the position of your gum line relative to the underlying bone using probing depths and digital X-rays. Cone Beam CT imaging may come in when we need a three-dimensional view of the bone. By the end of the visit, we’ll tell you which cause is most likely and what the realistic treatment path looks like.
2. Laser Gum Contouring (For Overgrown Tissue)
For patients whose gummy smile is from excess gum tissue only, our soft tissue laser reshapes the gum line in a single visit. The laser cauterizes as it cuts, which means minimal bleeding and faster recovery than scalpel-based contouring. The procedure takes 30 to 60 minutes depending on how many teeth are involved, uses local anesthesia, and you leave the same day. Most patients return to work the next day with mild tenderness that resolves within a few days. Final healing of the gum margin takes two to three weeks.
3. Crown Lengthening (For Short Clinical Crowns)
When the clinical crowns are short because of altered passive eruption, the treatment involves more than just soft tissue work. We reshape both the gum tissue and the underlying bone to expose the full natural length of the teeth. Crown lengthening takes a single session in our office under local anesthesia. Recovery takes longer than laser contouring because bone work is involved, but you should be back to normal activity within about a week and full healing happens over two to three months.
4. Treatment for Lip Mobility
For gummy smiles driven by hyperactive upper lip movement, the treatment options vary case by case. We assess the lip mobility carefully during the diagnostic visit and discuss what makes sense for your situation. Some patients are good candidates for in-office treatment; others benefit from referral to a specialist who focuses on lip-mobility cases. We’ll be straightforward about which side you fall on.
5. Restorative Work (If Needed)
Some patients pair gum-line correction with restorative work like veneers or crowns to refine the final appearance. After crown lengthening, the teeth are longer than they were before treatment, and some patients choose to add dental crowns or veneers to optimize the cosmetic result. This is a separate decision made after the gum work has fully healed, and we walk through the options based on what your case actually calls for.
6. Follow-Up and Final Assessment
At the post-treatment visit, we re-measure the gum line, take new photos for comparison, and confirm that healing is on track. If the case involved bone reshaping or restorative work, we’ll schedule additional visits across two to three months. The final result is usually clear by the eight to twelve week mark.
What Treatment Achieves
The case for treating a gummy smile is primarily cosmetic, and we want to say that plainly. Most patients who pursue treatment do it because they don’t like how their smile photographs, how they look in video calls, or how self-conscious they feel laughing or speaking in public. Those are valid reasons. The benefits below are what successful treatment actually accomplishes.
Your Tooth-to-Gum Ratio Looks More Balanced
The shift from a gummy smile to a balanced smile is usually noticeable in the first photos you take after healing. Patients who had three to five millimeters of excessive gum display before treatment typically show a normal gum line afterward, which changes the visual proportion of teeth to gums in your smile. The teeth look longer because they actually are longer in the visible sense, and the smile reads as more proportioned.
Your Confidence in Smiling Catches Up
This sounds obvious but it’s worth saying directly: many patients with gummy smiles have spent years learning not to smile fully in photos, on video, or with people they don’t know well. Those habits don’t undo themselves overnight, but most patients report within a few months of treatment that they’re smiling more freely. We hear this often enough at follow-up visits that we factor it into the conversation at the consultation.
You Have Options for Pairing Cosmetic Improvements
A gum-line correction can stand alone, or it can be paired with other cosmetic work. Many patients who address a gummy smile also pursue whitening, veneers, or alignment work as part of a smile makeover. Pairing treatments is optional. The gum-line work alone produces a real change for many patients, and adding cosmetic dentistry on top is a choice we discuss at the planning stage rather than assuming.
Results Are Long-Lasting
Once a gum-line correction has healed, the result is stable indefinitely for the most common cause categories. The exception is patients whose gummy smile was driven by lip mobility or by ongoing medication effects, where the cause itself can change over time. For altered passive eruption and gingival hyperplasia, the corrected gum line stays where we put it.
Why Choose Our Practice for Gummy Smile Treatment
 What separates RJ Dental for gummy smile treatment is that we treat the diagnostic phase as the most important part of the case. The procedural work afterward is well-established and most general cosmetic practices can perform it, but the diagnostic phase is where treatment plans go wrong if it’s rushed. Our first job is determining which cause is actually driving your gummy smile.
The diagnostic tools we use for this matter. The Cone Beam CT gives us a three-dimensional view of the bone level around each tooth, which is what tells us whether altered passive eruption is present and whether bone reshaping needs to be part of the plan. Our soft tissue laser shortens recovery for patients whose treatment is gum-contouring-only, often eliminating the need for sutures and reducing healing time compared to scalpel work.
We also keep the cosmetic and surgical sides of the case under one roof. The same team that performs the gum-line correction handles any restorative work that follows (crowns, veneers), which keeps the case coordinated rather than splitting it across multiple practices. And when the diagnostic phase points toward something we don’t treat in-house, like vertical maxillary excess, we’re direct about that and coordinate the referral rather than offering treatment that won’t deliver.
Both offices serve different geographies. Teaneck handles North Jersey patients near Bergenfield, Englewood, Fort Lee, and Hackensack. Roselle handles Central Jersey patients near Elizabeth, Linden, Cranford, and Westfield. You can be seen at whichever office is closer.
Cost and Insurance for Gummy Smile Treatment
We’ll be straight with you about cost. Gummy smile treatment ranges significantly depending on which cause is driving your case. Laser gum contouring for excess tissue is on the lower end of the cost spectrum. Crown lengthening with bone reshaping is more involved and costs accordingly. If pairing with veneers or crowns is part of the plan, the restorative work adds its own line item. After your diagnostic visit, we’ll walk through the specific recommended plan and what each component costs before you commit.
Most dental insurance plans treat gummy smile treatment as a cosmetic procedure, which means coverage is limited or unavailable. Plans may cover the diagnostic visit and X-rays as part of routine periodontal evaluation. We verify your benefits before treatment so you know your share in advance. Insurance details and the full list of plans we participate with are on our insurance and financing options.
For patients paying out of pocket or with cosmetic procedures not covered by insurance, our dental discount plan reduces the cost of exams, X-rays, and major work by up to 20%. Financing is also available through Sunbit, CareCredit, or LendingPoint with flexible monthly payments. The goal is to make whichever treatment your case calls for affordable enough that cost isn’t the barrier to moving forward.
Schedule a Gummy Smile Consultation
Ready to find out what’s causing your gummy smile and what we can do about it? Call our Teaneck office at (551) 369-2001 or our Roselle office at (908) 488-5005 to schedule a consultation. You can also request an appointment online and we’ll reach out promptly. Our Teaneck office is at 865 Teaneck Rd, Teaneck, NJ 07666. Our Roselle office is at 121-125 Chestnut St, Suite 201, Roselle, NJ 07203.
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as a gummy smile? Is 2mm of gum exposure too much?
Clinically, excessive gingival display means more than 3 millimeters of gum tissue visible at full smile. Below that, the gum exposure is within the range that most cosmetic and orthodontic guidelines consider normal. That said, the clinical threshold isn’t the only thing that matters. If your gum display bothers you visually, that’s a legitimate reason for a consultation regardless of the exact measurement. We assess each case individually at our practice, taking your goals into account along with the clinical numbers.
Will I need surgery, or can this be done with a laser?
It depends entirely on what’s causing your gummy smile. For patients whose issue is overgrown gum tissue only, our soft tissue laser handles the contouring in a single visit without scalpel work. For patients whose clinical crowns are short because the underlying bone needs to be reshaped (altered passive eruption), full crown lengthening is the next step, which involves both gum and bone work and is more accurately described as a surgical procedure than a laser one. At your consultation we’ll tell you which category your case falls into and what the procedure actually involves.
How long do gummy smile correction results last?
For the most common causes (altered passive eruption, gingival hyperplasia), the corrected gum line is stable indefinitely once it’s healed. There’s no maintenance procedure needed, and patients typically don’t see the gum line move back over time. The exception is cases driven by lip mobility or by ongoing medication effects, where the underlying cause itself can shift. We assess longevity expectations honestly at the consultation based on which cause is at play.
Will the procedure hurt?
You shouldn’t feel pain during the procedure. We numb the treatment area completely with local anesthesia before any work begins. We don’t offer sedation dentistry, and local anesthesia is enough for the large majority of patients undergoing this type of treatment. After the procedure, mild soreness for two to four days is normal, especially for crown lengthening where bone reshaping is involved. Over-the-counter pain medication typically handles it.
Can I combine gummy smile treatment with veneers?
Yes, and many patients do. After crown lengthening, the teeth are longer than they were before, and some patients want to refine the final cosmetic result with dental veneers over the newly exposed tooth length. The standard sequence is gum-line correction first, complete healing over six to eight weeks, then veneers. We don’t recommend doing both in the same visit because the veneer fit depends on the final position of the gum line, which isn’t fully settled until healing is complete.
How do I know if my gummy smile is from my lip or my gums?
Visually you usually can’t tell, which is why the diagnostic visit matters. The clinical sign for lip mobility is the distance the upper lip travels between rest and full smile. Average lip movement is about 6 to 8 millimeters. Lip movement significantly above that range, paired with normal gum and tooth length, points to lip mobility as the cause. We take photos at rest and at full smile and measure the difference, which is the simplest way to sort out which factor is dominant in your case.
Will insurance cover any part of this?
Typically no. Dental insurance categorizes gummy smile treatment as cosmetic, and cosmetic procedures aren’t covered by most plans. Insurance may cover the diagnostic exam, X-rays, and Cone Beam CT imaging as part of a routine periodontal evaluation, and the full list of plans we participate with is on our insurance and financing options. We verify your specific benefits before treatment so you know what is and isn’t covered before you commit to any procedure.
How long is recovery?
Recovery time depends on the procedure. Laser gum contouring has the shortest recovery, with patients typically returning to work the next day and full healing of the gum margin within two to three weeks. Crown lengthening with bone reshaping has a longer recovery, with patients typically back to normal activity within a week but full healing taking two to three months. We’ll give you specific recovery guidance based on which procedure your case calls for. |
