Examination for Periodontal Disease

Sometimes cosmetic gum concerns stem from gum disease. Swollen gums can make your teeth look short. Irritated gums have an unhealthy and unattractive color. More advanced gum disease can lead to receding gums.

Before we perform periodontal plastic surgery, we will examine your gums to make sure they’re healthy. If we detect gum disease, we will recommend periodontal therapy for your gum disease. Then, we’ll help you evaluate the appearance of your gums and recommend appropriate periodontal plastic surgery.

Periodontal Plastic Surgical Procedures

A surgical treatment for periodontal disease is an elective procedure that are performed to help you restore confidence in your smile. Whether you feel you have too much – or too little – gum tissue covering your teeth, there is an esthetic surgical procedure available to help you love your smile.

Gum Contouring

In a healthy, attractive smile, gums have a uniform, scalloped line that helps define the shape of your smile. If your gum line isn’t straight, it can make your smile look crooked, even if all your teeth are straight. Gum contouring will reshape the gum line to help you enjoy a beautifully straight smile.

Crown Lengthening

Some people are simply born with more gums covering the teeth than is necessary for good oral health. Crown lengthening surgery, also known as a gingivectomy, is an elective procedure that helps to resolve a “gummy” smile by removing some excess gum tissue. It is used to achieve a more balanced appearance between the ratio of gums to exposed tooth surface.

Before we perform this procedure, we’ll first evaluate your teeth to make sure they aren’t just short. If you have short teeth, you might benefit from procedures that build up your teeth, such as porcelain veneers or crowns.

Gingival Grafting

Just as some folks are born with an excess of gum tissue that covers the teeth, others are born with less tissue. Gingival grafting, or gum grafting, can restore your smile to one that is more balanced, younger in appearance, and healthier looking.

Gingival grafting can also help if you’ve experienced receding gums as a result of periodontal disease. If that’s the case, we will want to first treat the gum disease, then use gum grafting to restore your gums to a healthy, attractive position.

Gingival grafting can use either donor material from elsewhere in your mouth (autogenous graft) or from another donor (non-autogenous graft). The best choice depends on your needs and preferences.

Peri-Implant Gum Management

The titanium in dental implants bonds easily and effectively with your bones. However, it’s not always easy to get gums to grow up around a dental implant, especially for implant dentists who aren’t periodontists. Single dental implants, in particular, can experience visible gum recession that exposes the implant abutment or even the implant itself.

Our implant specialists in South Bay can help you get an attractive, natural-looking result with your dental implant, including healthy gums around the implant.

Get Attractive, Healthy Gums in Torrance, CA

Are you unhappy with the appearance of your gums? Whether your gums are making your teeth look small, exposing your tooth roots, making your teeth look crooked, or causing other cosmetic problems, we can help. The dentists are all specialists with decades of experience helping people enjoy beautiful, healthy gums.

Please call (310) 325-9969 or use our online form today to request an appointment at our dental implant center in Torrance, CA.