Botox for Gummy Smile?

Botox is a very good choice for patients that suffer "gummy smile". I my experience I have had very good results with judicious use of Botox to improve this condition. You need to go to an experienced Facial Plastic Surgeon that has had injected gummy smile in the past to have your best results. Good luck.

Botox may lower the upper lip to not be able to show the gum line when you smile. There is a risk of too much lowering; affecting your singing or playing of a wind instrument.  Be careful in this area.

A gummy smile has been successfully treated with Botox when performed by expert injectors. It should be a low dose into precise points on the upper lip to reduce the "gum" show without affecting any other motion. I recommend choosing a very experienced physician, someone with years of expertise in cosmetic dermatology or dermatologic surgery.

 Botox is not a good choice for treatment of a gummy smile.  Botox will paralyze the muscle of animation and inhibit your smile. A true gummy smile is the result of vertical maxillary excess. In order to correct this, you may need a maxillary impaction to reduce the overall height of the maxilla.

While Botox can be used to treat a gummy smile, this procedure can be very tricky to get just right, and can be very unpredictable. You must only have it done by a very experienced injector. The potential downside can be an asymmetry of your smile or changes in your upper lip muscle dynamics! I have favored using Juvederm for a gummy smile by enhancing the upper lip in a very natural way. This seems to work very well and is very striaghtforward. Some of my happiest patients are ones... more

Hi Robin BOTOX is great for some things. Not so great for other things. The gummy smile I think is mostly a doctor created sensitivity. Think about where you learned that this was a "issue." To counter act this "issue" BOTOX is injected into the lip elevators including the lavator labii superioris, levator labii superioris alaequae nasi, and occasionally the zygomaticus minor muscle. For sure this lowers the upper lip and covers the gums if the show when you smile. But... more

Yes, it will work very well. It has to be injected very precisely in the levator labii muscle which is near the junction of your nostrils with the cheek. Also the dose has to be calculated very carefully. A small amount can also be placed in the midline of the upper lip where it meets the nose (columella) and it helps bring down the center lip. Regards

I never knew what a "gummy smile" was until one of my patients was complaing of all the dental work she had done to correct her gummy smile. So evidently this not high on the spectrum of diseases or conditions that we must control. Nonetheless, many people besides my patient are bothered by a gummy smile, which occurs when the gum show and the upper lip curls upwards. A thin upper lip may exacerbate this problem by allowing more gum to show. Botox and sometimes the... more