Review of Gummy Smile Treatment, Protrusive Teeth Correction, and Gum Contouring

Hello,

This is Apgujeong Yonsei Baro Dental Clinic.

These days, many patients come in for orthodontic treatment because of a gummy smile, meaning that a lot of gum shows when they smile. So I’d like to talk about gummy smile correction.

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Let’s look at how a gummy smile was addressed with Clippy-C in a situation involving protrusive teeth, crooked teeth, a gummy smile, midline issues, and slight protrusion.

This patient in their 20s came in for orthodontic treatment two years ago.

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The midline is off by about 2 mm, and the canine is crooked.

A deep overbite, where the upper and lower front teeth bite too deeply, is also visible.

There is a gummy smile with a lot of gum showing when smiling. In particular, the upper front teeth are tipped backward, creating protrusive teeth.

One premolar is lying deeply tilted, almost as if it were impacted.

The treatment plan was to extract four premolars, including the tilted canine.

However, since we did not want the mouth to be pulled in too much, we decided to limit the amount the front teeth would be moved inward to about 2 mm through Morpheus simulation.

We also planned to intrude the front teeth to reduce gum display when smiling and to resolve the deep overbite.

The patient chose Clippy-C orthodontic treatment, and treatment began.

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This photo was taken one year into treatment.

We are closing the extraction spaces.

A bite block was also installed to improve the deep overbite.

Finally, treatment was completed in November 2025.

During the process of intruding the front teeth, the gums may rise along with the teeth, and the tooth height may become shorter than it was at the beginning.

In the latter case, gum contouring is needed after orthodontic treatment.

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This is the appearance immediately after gum contouring.

It was performed only on the three front teeth.

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The midline is well aligned, and the deep overbite has also been corrected.

The molar occlusion is a tight Class I relationship.

Now let’s compare the before and after results.

The total treatment period was 2 years and 3 months.

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As the deep overbite improved, the lower front teeth finally became more visible.

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A dramatic improvement in gummy smile correction achieved through the combined effects of front-tooth intrusion and gum contouring

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As the angle of the upper front teeth, which had been protrusive, improved, the smile became much brighter.

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The mouth was brought inward moderately, just as planned, without being overdone.

There was no root resorption, and the root parallelism was good.

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Looking at the superimposed X-rays before and after treatment, the upper front teeth moved inward by about 2 mm, and the improvement in the protrusive tooth angle is visible.

It was also confirmed that the upper front teeth were intruded upward by about 2 mm to improve the gummy smile.

For more on how much intrusion of the front teeth is appropriate in gummy smile correction, please refer to the post below.

To summarize briefly: if the teeth are moved up too much, the risk of root resorption at the front teeth increases, and when speaking normally, the upper teeth may not show enough while only the lower teeth are visible. So the intrusion should be planned at an appropriate level.

If you are concerned about a gummy smile?

If you are thinking about correcting crooked teeth, I hope this post was helpful, and I’ll end this long article here.