Gummy smile treatment in Marylebone, London. Doctor-performed anti-wrinkle injections that keep your smile natural, with honest routing for dental cases.
Dr Joney De Souza Clinic meets plenty of people who have spent years smiling with their mouth deliberately half closed. A gummy smile simply means a larger band of gum shows above the teeth when you smile, and the most common reason is muscular: the small muscles that lift the upper lip pull it higher than average, revealing gum that would otherwise stay covered. It is a variation, not a flaw, and photographs are usually what make people mind it more than mirrors do.
Not every gummy smile is lip driven, which is where honest assessment earns its place. Some are shaped by tooth proportion or gum tissue, which are dental and orthodontic stories, and some by jaw structure. The lip driven kind, though, is the majority we see, and it happens to be the easiest cosmetic fix on this entire site.
Small, precise doses of anti-wrinkle injections, placed by our doctors, gently relax the lip lifting muscles so the lip rises a little less when you smile. The smile stays entirely yours, just with less gum on show, and the whole appointment takes about ten minutes. Conservative dosing that keeps your smile natural is the entire craft here.
Gummy smiles have a few different causes, and only some of them are ours to treat. Find the one that sounds like your smile, then follow it through. Your doctor confirms the driver at consultation, watching you smile naturally before planning anything.
The most common driver
If your teeth are a normal proportion but the upper lip travels high enough to reveal a band of gum, the lifting muscles are the driver. Small, precise anti-wrinkle doses relax them just enough, and this is the classic, gratifying case.
Proportion, not just lift
A slim upper lip shows proportionally more gum even with a normal lift, and balancing the lip itself is sometimes the more natural fix, alone or alongside relaxing the lift. Our thin lips page covers that side properly.
Subtle, photo triggered
Some gum shows only in full, unguarded laughter, and plenty of people rightly leave that alone. For those who mind it in photographs, an especially conservative dose softens the peak of the lift while everyday smiles stay untouched.
| Compare | Anti-Wrinkle InjectionsFor the lip driven smile |
|---|---|
 | |
| Best for | Anti-Wrinkle Injections A normal smile where the upper lip simply lifts too high |
| What happens | Anti-Wrinkle Injections Tiny doses relax the lip lifting muscles slightly |
| How long it lasts | Anti-Wrinkle Injections A few months, then refreshed in rhythm |
| Downtime | Anti-Wrinkle Injections None |
| Price from | Anti-Wrinkle Injections £190 |
| View the treatment |
One precise treatment carries this page, supported by honest routing: lip balance via lip fillers where a thin upper lip shares the blame, and a straight referral where the driver is dental. Everything injectable is performed by our doctors.
Doctor performed
Small, precise doses gently relax the muscles that lift the upper lip, so less gum shows when you smile while the smile itself stays completely yours.
From £190, about ten minutes, results within one to two weeks.
Where honesty lives
Your doctor watches you smile naturally, confirms whether the lift, the lip or the teeth are driving the gum show, and refers you onward without charge if the answer is dental. No suitable case is talked into treatment.
Every plan at Dr Joney De Souza Clinic starts with watching you smile, properly and repeatedly, because a posed smile and a real laugh lift the lip differently. Your doctor measures how much gum shows and where, checks the proportion of lip, teeth and gum, and confirms whether the lifting muscles are genuinely the driver. Dental and orthodontic cases are referred honestly rather than injected hopefully.
Suitable smiles get a deliberately conservative first dose, because a smile is the one place where too little beats too much every single time.
“My ‘less is more’ approach has become the mainstay of my practice and clients appreciate that they will have natural looking results.”
Dr Joney De Souza, speaking to The Sybarite
Here is what happens before, during and after treatment at our Marylebone clinic.
Your consultation confirms the driver and the dose, with photographs of your natural smile as the baseline. There is nothing to prepare beyond avoiding alcohol for a day or so, and no pressure to treat on the day.
The appointment itself takes about ten minutes: a few tiny injections placed precisely by your doctor into the lip lifting muscles. Most people describe it as a couple of small pinches, and numbing is available for the nervous.
You go straight back to your day. The softening builds over one to two weeks as the muscles gently relax, which is when your review checks the smile against the baseline photographs and tops up only if needed. Results last a few months and are refreshed in rhythm.
To a small degree. Smile coaching genuinely exists, and some people learn to soften the peak of their lift for photographs. A fuller upper lip line drawn with makeup shifts the visual proportion slightly. And the free option deserves honest airtime: plenty of gummy smiles read to everyone else as warmth and openness, and treating them is a preference, never a need.
Where self help runs out of road is the muscle itself, because no exercise selectively weakens a lip elevator. If the gum show bothers you in every photograph, the injectable route is quick, subtle and reversible by time.
What treatment will not do. We would rather say this plainly. Anti-wrinkle injections will not change tooth or gum proportion, will not lift a thin lip, and wear off after a few months by design. Results vary between smiles, and we will decline to treat where the driver is dental or where we believe the change would not suit you.
You may also want to read about related concerns we treat nearby, including thin lips and lip lines.
The questions our Marylebone team hears most often about gummy smiles, from what causes them to what treatment involves and costs. If yours is not here, message us on WhatsApp and one of the team will answer properly.
Most often, upper lip muscles that lift higher than average, revealing gum that would otherwise stay covered. Less commonly the driver is tooth proportion, gum tissue sitting low, or jaw structure, which are dental and orthodontic stories. The consultation exists to tell those apart honestly.
Small, precise doses of anti-wrinkle injections gently relax the lip lifting muscles, so the lip rises a little less when you smile and less gum shows. The change builds over one to two weeks, looks entirely natural at the right dose, and wears off gradually over a few months.
That is the entire brief. Conservative dosing softens the height of the lift without touching the width, warmth or timing of your smile. We photograph your natural smile first, dose lightly, and review at two weeks against those photographs rather than guesswork.
About ten minutes of actual treatment inside a standard consultation slot. It is genuinely one of the quickest procedures we offer: a few tiny injections, no numbing needed for most people, and straight back to your day afterwards.
A few months, typically three to four, before the muscles gradually return to their usual lift. Most people settle into a refresh rhythm of three or so visits a year, and there is no harm in simply letting it wear off if you want a break.
Very little. The needles are extremely fine and the doses tiny, so most people describe a couple of small pinches above the lip. Numbing cream is available for the nervous, though few end up wanting it.
Our doctors, every time. The lip elevators sit close to muscles you very much do not want relaxed, so placement and dosing judgement matter enormously, and this treatment is never delegated to a non medical injector at our clinic.
Then injections are the wrong tool and we will say so at consultation, without charging you for the honesty. Short looking teeth and low gum tissue are dental and orthodontic matters, and the right referral gets you a better result than the wrong injection ever could.
Yes, proportionally. A slim upper lip reveals more gum even with a normal lift, and sometimes balancing the lip itself, covered on our thin lips page, is the more natural route, alone or alongside a light relaxing dose. Your doctor maps the proportion at consultation.
The honest comfort is that it is temporary: the effect wears off fully within a few months, and a conservative first dose makes a result you dislike very unlikely to begin with. We review at two weeks precisely so anything that wants adjusting gets caught early.
Not medically, and often not aesthetically either: plenty of beloved public smiles show plenty of gum. Treating it is a personal preference, and if you sit in the camp that minds it in every photograph, the fix is quick and subtle. If you do not mind it, keep it.
At our clinic, treatment starts from £190, performed by our doctors, with the exact dose and price confirmed at consultation once we have watched your natural smile. Our full price list has the detail.
Verified Google reviews from patients treated by our doctors at Dr Joney De Souza Clinic in Marylebone.
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