Crown lengthening is a dental procedure whereby excess gum and/or bone tissue is removed from around one or more teeth in order to expose a greater proportion of the tooth. Sometimes crowns are lengthened to prepare the way for dental implants or just to improve the aesthetics of your smile (get rid of that "gummy" smile). But one of the most common reasons for crown lengthening is to enable correct placement of dental crowns.

While a far more common periodontal problem is to have too little gum tissue due to periodontal disease and gradual gum recession, having too much gum tissue can also be problematic. Crown lengthening is the number one procedure used by periodontists to correct a "gummy smile" and other problems related to excess periodontal tissue in particular locations in your mouth.

Crown lengthening is sometimes necessary to deal with a "gummy" smile or enable another dental procedure such as a tooth extraction or putting in dental implants.

When you have too little gum tissue, a common problem, it’s best fixed through gum graft surgery and/or periodontal treatment. But when you have too much gum tissue, the opposite procedure, called crown lengthening, is in order.

Crown lengthening is a dental procedure that's done when your gum line is too high. It's the opposite of PST grafts, which periodontists use to treat a badly receded gum line.

Crown lengthening may be done for purely aesthetic purposes (to cure that "gummy" smile), but it's usually done in conjunction with other dental procedures, like putting in a filling or a dental crown, to make those procedures easier.