What can I do if my teeth look too short?

The obvious answer is to make them longer, but how to best accomplish this can get complicated. First a dentist should determine the optimal edge position of the maxillary central teeth. Usually this can be done by having a patient going through a series of lip poses; Lip at rest, lip smiling, and possibly making the sound"eeeeeee". Mock up composite can be added to the edges of the maxillary incisors in order to try out how the incisor edge would look with a slight addition. Photos can be taken of the patient in the various lip poses.

Once the optimum pleasing position of the central incisors is envisioned then the hard part takes place. usually a set of study impressions and a full set of radiographs are taken. Studying these helps a dentist to determine exactly what should be done to achieve the changes needed to the lengthen teeth. Usually most central Incisors should be about 10 mm long but how to create the additional length that is needed? Treatments needed may involve possible orthodontic treatments (including either teeth extrusion or teeth intrusion}, crown lengthening, opening the bite, porcelain veneers, crowns or simple bonding. Often a combination of these treatments may be needed.

Often, when a patient comes to my office with this or another esthetic problem it can take several visits to determine a proposal for their treatment plan. Commonly, specialists need to be consulted in order to come up with the best treatment plan.

I belong to a study club in which a group of experienced dentists get together every month or so and go over case presentations. Among our members, we have an Orthodontist, Periodontist, Oral Surgeon, a Prosthodontist and four or five general dentists. It is often surprising how many ways we can come up to restore the patient's mouths that are being presented. Most often a number of options have to be explored and the pros and cons of each need to be reviewed before we can come to a consensus for a optimal treatment plan.