March 17, 2020 By Dr Chetna Singh
Botox Injection for treating gummy smile by Dr Chetna Singh
BOTOX INJECTION FOR TREATING GUMMY SMILE
When we think of botox what comes in our mind is an antiwrinkle injection ,but there are a number of surprising uses of botox which has nothing to do with reducing wrinkles.
Botulinum toxin A( famous by the trade name botox) works by blocking the signals from the nerves to the muscle(in which it is injected) thus the injected muscle can no longer contract. So botox injection is injected in a targeted muscle to make it unable to contract (in other words partially paralyze it or relax it).
To name a few uses of botox other than reducing wrinkles on face are reducing hyperhydrosis(excessive sweating) in underarms and palms, reducing the size of oversized(hypertrophied) massetter muscle thus making a squarish face look more oval and slimmer, treating migraine headaches, improving the symptoms of depression, treating neck pains and back pains.
But today what Iam going to focus on is use of botox in treating or improving a gummy smile.
A woman is most beautiful when she smiles, they say. We all want to have that perfect smile. Showing around 2mm of gums while smiling is normal but when we show around 10-12mm of gums(gingiva) then its called a gummy smile.
In order to get that perfect smile people are ready to go under the knife ,but what if I tell you that its not necessary at all ,and just two small injections on either side of your nose will do the trick, good news huh! And not only that its easy on your pocket as well.
A whole lot of muscles are present in our face which are responsible for different facial expressions and there are a group of muscles which contract together to make us smile which are- levator labii superioris, zygmaticus major, zygomaticus minor, orbicularis oris, levator anguli oris and risorious. The overactive or overcontraction of these muscles results in gummy smile
Injecting botox on an average 2- 4 unit on each side at the junction of insertion points of these muscles will relax these muscles and thus will correct the gummy smile.
You will need a touch up with lesser number of units after a couple of months. A before and after picture is shown below for your reference.
In C&S Clinic we deal with such cases very frequently (the site of injection and number of units may vary according to each patient’s personal need). In severe cases we may have to add dermal fillers and sometimes gingivectomy to get a desired result.