Enhancing Esthetics by the Carting of the Melanin: A Case Report with 1-Year Follow-up

Abstract

Esthetic smile is always desired by every individual and right amount of exposure, color and contour of gingiva plays a major role in achieving it. Gingival hyperpigmentation occurs by excessive accumulation of melanin. The degree of clinical pigmentation is depends upon melanin amount i.e. total number of melanosomes present in the suprabasal layer of the epithelium. Melanin pigmentation affects patient’s esthetics, it is not a medical disorder. There are various procedure for the correction of gingival depigmentation in which split thickness removal of gingival epithelium is carried out. Conventional scalpel surgical technique provides the maximum control over the instrument and therefore adequate depth penetration can be easily achieved during the surgical procedure. The scalpel surgical technique is simple, efficient, economical,convenient to perform and the need of sophisticated instrument is also not required.The present case report therefore describes conventional scalpel surgical technique of gingival depigmentation for the correction of patient’s esthetics with 1 year follow-up.

Key words: Gingiva, Esthetics, Depigmentation, Gingival Hyperpigmentation, Melanin