Listen to Your Dentist When They Recommend Wisdom Teeth Extraction

Crown lengthening is when a dentist cuts away gum tissue and, potentially, jawbones surrounding a tooth in order to make more of the crown visible. Lengthening can treat a wide range of dental problems including cosmetic dentistry issues and dental damage that needs correction from your general or family dentist.

What are some of the most common dental problems that can be corrected or treated with crown lengthening? Note that you should always contact your dentist for personalized treatment recommendations best suited for your particular dental problem.

Gummy Smile

Some people are born with an excess amount of gum tissue that sits higher up on the tooth than normal and makes the teeth look short. The positioning can result in an extreme amount of gums showing when the person smiles, which can cause cosmetic concerns.

If you have a gummy smile, your dentist can fix the problem using the milder form of crown lengthening. The dentist will numb your soft tissue then cut away enough of the excess tissue so that your teeth look the normal height. Your dentist might also use gingivoplasty to carefully shape the bottoms of the gums near the base of the teeth to create the most natural, visually pleasant appearance.

Severely Cracked or Broken Tooth

When a tooth cracks or breaks, the usual treatments are a filling or a crown depending on the severity and location of the problem. But a severe crack or break that goes all the way down towards the gum line can cost you too much natural tooth for the treatments. Your dentist would then need to use a crown lengthening procedure to give you more tooth space to hold the crown or filling.

The dentist will need to cut back the gums and file down some of the alveolar bone surrounding the base of the tooth since so much of the upper tooth is gone.

Once the crown lengthening is complete and the gums heal, your dentist can then place the crown or filling like normal.

Lost Fillings or Crowns

Did you have a filling or crown fail because the surrounding or underlying tooth was decaying without your knowledge? When the filling or crown fails, you might find yourself with a lot of damaged tooth. If the tooth is still viable, your dentist might decide to shave away the severe damage, lengthen the crown, and then install a new crown or filling.