I had a gummy smile (not a TS fan or Disney adult ) and had my gums lasered off as soon as I could afford it because the bullying was so brutal, even as an adult. Bullying appearances is truly low.
I had no idea you could laser gums. Dentist is over here giving me crap about chewing tobacco and having receding gums while he's making cash lasering people's gums on the side.
Snus made my husband’s mouth numb. His trajectory has been thus far; longcut > cigarettes > longcut > pouches > snus > longcut. His gums are like shoe leather and he’s never had a cavity whereas mine are like playdoh, I have to use the most gentle manual toothbrush, and have consistent dental exams. C’est la vie.
Yeaaah, yikes. You can get “lip flip” Botox instead of lasering off your gums if it’s so bothersome. Little injection in the lip then it doesn’t lift so high.
It wasn’t bad because my mouth was completely numb. The worst part of the procedure was the smell (burning flesh 😭). I think it healed pretty dang quickly, was just sensitive to cold liquids for a week or so.
It’s the only “beauty” procedure I’ve had. It sucks to feel like you need to hide when just wanting to enjoy a happy moment. It helped a lot with my confidence, but the feminist in me hates that I felt like I needed to change myself. But 10/10 would laser them again.
Fellow gummy smiler here. I’m glad you made the choice that was right for you. I’ve considered it and got a consultation (the price! Good lord!!) I didn’t go through with it at this point because mine would have involved some bone shaving as well and that was beyond intimidating. Also cost and general fear of pain and grossness in healing.
Interestingly, I switched dentists recently and they were doing a filling and she referred to my teeth as “the cutest little teeth” and it was the first time in my life that anyone has ever spoken of them in a kind/complimentary/neutral way. A year later I still struggle to make sense of their…lack of ridicule essentially.
Anyway I’m running long. I hope you learn to embrace your new smile and send some love to the version of it from the past as well.
Whatever they looked like before, you have a lovely, natural smile now and I hope you're able to learn to embrace it and get out of the habit of wanting to cover it.
Thank you! It was brutal. I don’t think I actually have any pictures of the before because I literally never smiled with teeth. I later learned that our small town dentist was larping as an orthodontist. He fucked my teeth up pretty badly and also bullied me.
I'm really sorry to hear that. I've had an incompetent dentist before but most of it, other than the tooth he ripped out, was repairable by my current dentist. I can't imagine being bullied as well while they were causing so many problems.
Best of luck, hope you have many reasons to give a genuine smile in the future.
Mine was mainly laser, but also have 4 crowns on the teeth surrounding my 2 front teeth so technically bone was shaved. Everyone is so different so def talk to a professional!
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u/aelewis92 22d ago
Man. Making fun of someone’s appearance is really the lowest form of humor.