53 Year Old with Gummy Smile

I always hated my smile because of the excess gum, yellowing and the gaps between my teeth. I finally made it a priority to get this addressed. I signed up for dental insurance since I'm self employed. I think it helped with the cost somewhat.

I went to Dr. Michael Quinn at Coast Dental in Atlanta. He was very personable and explained the procedure in detail for me and I was eager to get started. Fortunately, I didn't need any bone removed. The procedure is called a gingivectomy and is considered a medical treatment because I had so much gum and had been treated for periodontal disease. Some pockets could not be kept disease free without the gum removal.

The procedure itself took about an hour and surprisingly, I had very little pain. I was on soft foods for 2 days and I was also shocked at how fast my gums healed. It was about a week and they looked and felt great !

I couldn't believe I had teeth hiding out ! I had whitened my stubs before and you can tell the difference because the newly exposed area is yellow. Now I have aligners to close the gaps and use whitening to change the color.

I'm really disappointed. And I know that for some people, bone has to be removed in order to get the results you want. This was not recommended to me. To have surgery, spend almost $3000 and then 4 months later, things are starting to revert upsets me. I saw a new dentist today and they said it would cost $2600 to do it the right way. I can't have it done anytime soon because I am using smile direct aligners. My aligner plan will be over in December. I'm just praying they don't grow all the way back by then.