Why Don't My Bottom Teeth Show When I Smile?
An ideal grin is broad, reveals a whole row of teeth, has a broad palate, and exposes as little of the gums as possible.
It is safe to assume that you have a gummy grin if your bottom teeth are not visible when you smile.
Gummy smiles result from excessive gum tissue development, which causes most of the teeth to be covered.
Facial recession and the use of certain drugs may both lead to the appearance of gummy smiles.
Dental operations such as gum recontouring may expose more of your bottom teeth to view.
Gummy Smiles
Because most individuals have excessively gummy grins, their bottom teeth do not show when they smile.
This is the case with most people.
It's possible that your teeth are not genuinely small but that an excessive amount of gum is covering them.
It's not uncommon to see people smiling with their gums.
About ten per cent of people between the ages of 20 and 30, most women, believe that they have gummy grins (Jerbi et al., 2020).
However, this may still be problematic for some since gummy grins have the potential to destroy their sense of self-confidence.
What Causes a Gummy Smile?
Several factors might contribute to your bottom teeth being hidden by your gums when you smile.
Two of the most prominent explanations for a gummy grin are as follows:
Facial Recession
Many people who grin with their gums are also likely to experience facial recession.
A retreating chin is one of the symptoms of facial recession, which indicates inadequate development of the mandible.
A gummy grin might result from the facial recession, which can substantially influence how your teeth and jaw grow over time.
For instance, you can have excessive gum development if your lower jaw is receding or protruding.
This can happen for several reasons.
The recession of the face is often caused by breathing via the lips.
When you breathe via your mouth, it slows down the development of your face and jaw, affecting the formation of your gums and teeth.
If a youngster breathes via their lips when they are younger, that habit may drastically alter their appearance as they age, even if they keep breathing that way.
People who breathe through their mouths have jaws that are too relaxed when they breathe, and their tongues and mouth have bad posture.
The sunken chin and weak jawline directly result from the bad posture.
Your teeth and gums might be negatively affected if your jawline and chin are not fully grown.
There wouldn't be enough space for all of your teeth, and your mouth would feel claustrophobic.
The mandible usually also points downward and inward, resulting in an abnormally large amount of gum tissue.
Medications
Gingival hyperplasia is the medical term for the proliferation of gum tissue that certain drugs may cause.
In most cases, this entails the consumption of medication that lowers high blood pressure, dampens the activity of the immune system, and stops seizures.
To get rid of your gummy grin, you should not, under any circumstances, discontinue taking the meds you are now prescribed.
Instead of concentrating on this, treating gingival hyperplasia would be in your best interest.
You may seek the advice of a periodontist if you wish to get it treated.
In most cases, a periodontist will carry out a surgery involving removing diseased or swollen gum tissue.
In addition, sutures may be used to heal gum tissue damaged during the procedure.
The circumstances of your situation will determine the specific method.
Examples of routine techniques include laser excision, electrosurgery, gingivectomy, and other operations.
What Can I Do to Get Rid of My Gummy Smile and Show Off My Bottom Teeth?
Gum Recontouring
Getting your gums recontoured is a straightforward procedure that may show more of your bottom teeth.
It's possible that your bottom teeth aren't very short at all. Simply put, you have excessive gum tissue covering your bottom teeth.
Gingivectomy is the medical term for removing extra gum tissue in preparation for gum recontouring.
In order to ensure that the surgery is carried out without causing you any discomfort, a local anaesthetic will be administered before it.
In order to expose your teeth, a surgeon will restructure the gums and trim them using a laser or a knife.
Lasers have largely replaced scalpels as the instrument of choice in surgical procedures.
The surgeon will be able to make more accurate incisions, and there will be less blood and discomfort as a result.
Your recovery will differ depending on whether your surgeon utilised a laser.
If they did the procedure with a scalpel, you could have tender gums for the next seven days.
They also have a high risk of bleeding.
Your healing time would be significantly reduced if the surgeon had utilised a laser.
Your doctor won't have to use sutures since there won't be open wounds to treat after the procedure.
Surgery to Lengthen the Crown
In more difficult situations, a periodontist may recommend crown lengthening surgery to correct a gummy grin.
This procedure lengthens the crowns of the teeth.
Simply removing excess gum tissue, gum recontouring makes it possible to see more of the patient's teeth.
In the crown lengthening surgery, excess gum tissue and sometimes bone surrounding the teeth is removed to extend the enamel visible on the tooth.
Therefore, if your bottom teeth do not show, crown lengthening surgery could help you disclose more of your natural teeth.
When some individuals receive crown lengthening surgery, it's often to alter the bone level to expand the size of the visible tooth or height over the gum line.
This may be the case for certain people.
However, this does not occur in every instance.
If you need further treatment to restore your teeth, you will require this.
This will ensure sufficient tooth structure to support the new restoration after it has been placed.
For example, if you need to have veneers, crowns, or other restorations, crown lengthening is often done because it may assist attach the new restorations.
Crown lengthening surgery is another option for patients with extensive tooth decay below the gum line and who need their teeth repaired.
It is also possible that you may require it if a piece of your tooth has broken off or if it is fractured below the gum line.
Mewing
The act of mewing may stimulate upward and forward facial development, which can considerably improve the aesthetics of your face and perhaps even diminish the appearance of a gummy grin.
Even while it may not heal your gummy grin, it can stop it from becoming worse in the future.
When you mew, you cause pressure to be applied to your palate.
By doing this, you stimulate the muscles in the middle of your face to rise upward and forward, which draws attention to your cheekbones and eyes.
Chewing also increases the movement of the lower jaw upward and forward, which may reduce the appearance of facial recession.
Mewing Effects Mewing and Forward Growth Effects
In addition to this, mouth breathing may benefit greatly by mewing.
It helps improve your jawline and midface and encourages you to breathe through your nose, which is a healthy habit overall.
Snoring and sleep apnea are both conditions that may be helped by breathing through your nose instead of your mouth.
In addition, it enables active tissues to get a greater supply of oxygen.
When you mew, you can improve the posture of your tongue, jaw, and mouth.
It is necessary to have your tongue rest on your palate to correct your tongue's posture.
In an ideal situation, you should aim to apply most of the pressure on your hard palate using the rear third of your tongue.
Your tongue should rest in a flat position and cover most of your palate.
On the contrary, it would be in your best interest to use extreme caution and refrain from touching your teeth at all costs.
In order to improve the posture of your mouth, you should keep your lips together yet allow them to remain relaxed.
To achieve proper jaw position, your upper and lower teeth should be near one another, but they should never touch.
You need to make sure that you are familiar with all the different aspects of mewing to combat facial recession.
To provide one example, you must educate yourself on the correct way to chew food and swallow it.
When you chew your food, you should concentrate on engaging the muscles in your masseter and teeth.
This will ensure that you have good eating techniques.
You can move your food around in your mouth by using your tongue.
When chewing or moving food around in your mouth, you should avoid using the muscles of your buccinator.
If you want to learn how to correctly chew your food, you may do so by clicking here.
When you swallow, you should use the muscles in your tongue and suprahyoid region.
This will ensure that you have a good swallowing technique.
It is not recommended that you utilise your cheeks to move food to the back of your mouth while eating.
Instead, you must roll your meal back with your tongue to get the best results.
Take a scoop of the food, elevate your tongue, and allow the very rear third of your tongue to press on the hard palate as you swallow it.
When you do this, you should be able to see the cartilage in your thyroid moving.
Be aware. However, that mewing is something that only works for youngsters when the position of their tongue is influencing the development of their face.
Although it is effective for adults, it may take years or even decades to see even a millimetre or two of the difference in your child's height.
As an adult, you will need a LeFort procedure to address the underlying problem causing your face recession.
🍀 GOOD LUCK 🍀
Matt Phelps