Abstract
A smile expresses a feeling of joy, success, sensuality, affection, and courtesy, and reveals self-confidence and kindness. The gingival tissue around the teeth is equally essential which are components of an attractive smile.
Excess gingival display can occur when passive eruption has been delayed. The result is the appearance of short clinical crowns. In the presence of a medium or a high lip line, this condition is more noticeable. If the patient desires an anterior dentition that is more normal in tooth length, resective treatment that exposes the anatomical crowns may be warranted.
Excessive gingival display and gingival hyperpigmentation are major concerns for a large number of patients visiting dental professionals. Melanin hyper-pigmentation usually does not present a medical problem, but patients usually complain of dark gums as being unaesthetic. This problem is aggravated in patients with a “gummy smile”.
Aberrant frenum may also jeopardize the gingival health by causing a gingival recession when they are attached too closely to the gingival margin, either because of an interference with the proper placement of a toothbrush or through the opening of the gingival crevice because of a muscle pull.
This presentation is the case report of a 23 year old female patient with severe gingival pigmentation with clinically short crown involving aberrant frenum and high smile line. The customized treatment plan included depigmentation, crown lengthening of the anterior region, and frenectomy to relieve aberrant frenum as a part of esthetic smile correction . These periodontal surgical procedures were carried out using a surgical scalpel and there was no post-operative complications. The one week post operative results showed satisfactory healing with improvement in esthetics.