The treatment of gummy smile: integrative review of literature

The use of periodontal surgery to treat the condition of gummy smile is an essentially aesthetic approach and plays an important role in raising the self-esteem of patients. Effective treatment requires identification of the best technique for the correction, and the long-term predictability of the procedure. Objective: The aim of this study was to conduct an integrative review of scientific evidence relating to the periodontal surgery techniques used to treat gummy smile. Method and Materials: According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria A total of five (05) articles from the PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases were analyzed. The majority of cases found featured women, and the average age was 26 years. In most cases, the predominant surgical technique was based on the use of gingivectomy with osteotomy, with a follow-up period of around 6 months. Conclusion: This review revealed a serious lack of controlled and randomized clinical studies into the use of periodontal surgery to treat gummy smiles and highlighted a need for longitudinal clinical studies, with greater evidence, about the best type of periodontal surgery for this purpose.