The term lengthening in dentistry has a specific meaning. It means increasing the size of a dental crown. You may be wondering what I am talking about because your perception of what a crown actually is maybe different. Well, you find dentists such myself who uses the word "crown" in its proper sense. In reality, we use it to refer to the real tooth that is plainly visible to everyone when you smile.

The crown is the part of the tooth that you see above the gumline.

Crown is also used to mean the fabricated material that we use to replace parts of natural teeth.

I did warn you that you might get a little confused.

Sometimes people have teeth that are gummy. No, it has nothing to do with those gummy bear jelly sweets. It has to do with your gums, and how they rise so high that your crown may barely show itself. The gums stand out more than the teeth when you smile.

When clients see me at my Fairfax City dental office, they make it clear they want a dazzling smile. Not a gummy one. Sometimes, it could be a genuine dental reason to increase the length of their crowns while easing up on the gum.

When it comes to making a dental crown longer I take off some of your gum to give your tooth the appearance of being longer. You also get situations in which we are preparing the tooth for a porcelain crown. In these cases, we may need to disturb a little bit of the jaw bone. The gum, however, is our main target and we try to avoid going into the bone.

When doing crown lengthening at my Fairfax City dental office, you need to have a local anesthetic. When the anesthetic has taken effect, it's time to use either a laser or an alternative cutter to cut away, little by little, on your gum borders.

I might also do some cutting on neighboring teeth. So I do not make a mistake of giving it an imbalanced appearance. I would not have removed too much from a single place. This is a very important factor. I can assure you I take great care with this because I have the experience to do the best job possible.

If the job calls for a porcelain crown, initially I'll finish the crown prep and put on a temporary crown. In a few weeks or so you have to undergo the second part of the procedure. You can then have your brand new crown, fresh from the lab, fitted on to your tooth.

When it comes to crown lengthening, if it is done for cosmetic reasons only, your treatment is more or less complete. Possibly, you want to go that extra mile and get some veneers. Or you could get a taste of my other Fairfax City cosmetic dentistry.

I hope we can meet soon to talk about our cosmetic dentistry, at our dental clinic here in Fairfax City.