Surgical crown lengthening is a surgical procedure to expose more tooth structure and increase the clinical crown length. Crown lengthening can be used to increase retention form, which makes further fillings or crowns possible, or to improve aesthetic outcome, such as correct "gummy smile".
In this case, the tooth had root canal treatment, post and crown done years ago and unfortunately broke off. The remaining tooth was just at the same level of gum line. It would not be strong enough and last long if we just put a filling sitting on the top of the tooth.
After crown lengthening, we achieved about 2mm more tooth structure above gum line. This increased clinical crown will maximise the ferrule effect and make a bridge restoration possible.
