"My smile is very important to me. I never really had huge issues with my teeth but I did have some spacing that I was not happy with. Deciding to get invisalign was one of the best decisions I've ever made. The hard part was finding a facility that would tend to my needs and make me feel at home. I researched for quite some time before actually picking a place, but I finally ended up choosing Luxury Dentistry.”
- Darween F.
A gingivectomy, or a gum lift procedure, is a cosmetic dentistry procedure performed by a certified dentist to reshape the gums for a more aesthetically pleasing smile. As it is a purely cosmetic procedure, it is often done only on the gums around the front teeth, which is the most visible area while smiling. It can be likened to a cosmetic surgical face lift to fix wrinkles or saggy skin. Many patients choose to undergo a gum lift along with other cosmetic dentistry; for example, an even gum line is more attractive when applying veneers.
Previous gum lift techniques were often painful and required manual cutting of the gums, stitches during recovery, and weeks of downtime. Now, using advances in Laser Dentistry, lasers are utilized to make gum lifts much less painful, more accurate, and with minimal recovery. During a typical laser dentistry gum lift, a local anesthetic is applied to the treatment area. General anesthesia is not usually needed. Then the lasers are used by the dentist to cut the gum line to reshape it to have the desired effect. The lasers automatically seal off blood vessels, so there is usually very little to no bleeding. Over the counter pain medications may be taken for patient comfort if desired, and patients can normally eat and drink as usual within a day following the procedure. Post-procedure instructions by the dentist will need to be followed closely to minimize the risk of infection, and there may be maintenance procedures to keep the achieved results.
