Gum Lift and Crown Refresh

This awesome patient came to us for a cosmetic consultation. She always wears the same red lipstick, she says it’s her signature color! She had old PFM crowns placed on 7-10 over 10 years ago and they really didn’t match her smile well. The other big discrepancy was how different the gingival zeniths are between the teeth. After closer inspection, I discovered that they used the crowns to try to close the spaces, but I assured her we could do better with newer technology in ceramics!

A case like this is interesting because normally in order to change the gums, we have to change the underlying bone with a procedure called crown lengthening. In her case, we were fortunate and the proposed new gum levels were still 2-3mm from the crest of the ridge upon bone sounding!

Either way, when altering the architecture so significantly, we want to allow the soft and hard tissue to heal completely before finalizing our restorations. This is important because part of the art of cosmetic dentistry is hiding the margin – or transition from tooth structure to restorative material.

So for this patient, we used our provided ‘gum lift guide’ and trimmed the gums. We then cut off the old crowns using our new waxup, and re-prepped the teeth down to the new gum levels. We milled same-day Katana Zirconia crowns, and only glazed the buccal. This gives us a chance to try in the new design, but most importantly gives the patient something to wear that is floss-able so the gums can heal nicely over the next 8-12 weeks. I only glazed the buccal to give the crowns a bit more ‘life’ to them, and made sure the rest of them are just polished Zirconia. Tissue LOVES Zirconia, so the gums should turn over nicely. In 8-12 weeks, we will take these crowns off (fingers crossed they come off easily thanks to temporary cement!) and adjust our margins and preps before fabricating the final restorations.

Thanks for trusting us with your smile, bite, function, and confidence! For more information about implants, options for restoring your smile, or the differences between fixed and removable implant solutions, follow me on Instagram @FantaskiSmiles and send a DM with any questions. To schedule a consultation, please call (678) 845-8658.