Charlie Kirk Smile: The Viral Meme and the Dentistry of a Gummy Smile

The Gummy Smile: What Excessive Gingival Display Actually Is, and What Can Be Done A gummy smile is defined as more than 2 mm of gum tissue showing above the upperfront teeth at a full smile, a threshold credited to Peck and Peck (1995) andstill the most commonly used limit in smile esthetics research. The clinical termis excessive gingival display. It is classified as a nonpathological anatomicalvariation, not a disease. This episode covers the clinical definition, prevalence, the five underlyingcauses, and the four evidence-based treatment categories, with particularattention to how those treatments compare over twelve months rather than at theone-month mark. Topics covered: 1. Why gummy smile searches spiked, and why a still frame is not diagnostic2. The 2 mm definition and the term excessive gingival display3. Prevalence: roughly 10 percent of a 454-person young adult sample showed a high smile line (Tjan et al., 1984), more often in women4. Five causes: hyperactive upper lip, short upper lip, altered passive eruption, vertical maxillary excess, dentoalveolar extrusion5. Four treatments: esthetic crown lengthening, lip repositioning surgery, botulinum toxin, orthodontic intrusion6. Durability data from Maleki et al. (2024): comparable reduction at one month, but nonsurgical results returning to baseline by twelve months7. Digital Smile Design as a pre-treatment preview8. Listener questions on health risk, veneers, genetics and periodontal surgery Full article: https://www.maltepedentalclinic.com/blog/charlie-kirk-smile/Website: https://www.maltepedentalclinic.com/Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@podcastsofmaltepedentalContact: [email protected] Educational content only. Not medical advice.