Gingivectomy with high-power laser for correction of the gummy smile resulting from altered passive eruption-a case series.

To compare the efficacy between the surgical techniques of gingivectomy with high-power laser (HPL) and conventional gingivectomy for correction of a gummy smile (GS) due to altered passive eruption (APE). This was a case series of six female patients diagnosed with GS associated with APE. For the conventional gingivectomy procedure and for the one using the diode laser (808 nm, 2 W, in continuous mode), the six upper anterior teeth were divided into two groups (control (CG)-# 11, # 12, # 13, and test (TG)-# 21, # 22, # 23). Analyses of intraoperative bleeding and levels of pain and postoperative tissue repair were performed. The thermal pattern analysis was performed using infrared thermography. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05. There was no intraoperative bleeding in the TGs (p = 0.002). The CG showed tissue repair significantly better than the TG on the 14th postoperative day (p = 0.004). There were no statistically significant differences regarding the level of postoperative pain between the groups (p > 0.05). Regarding the thermographic analysis, there were also no statistically significant differences (p > 0.05). HPL gingivectomy was more effective, regarding the absence of intraoperative bleeding, while the conventional technique promoted better tissue repair. No significant differences were observed in the other parameters, possibly due to the minimal damage caused by gingivectomy, with either HPL or the conventional procedure, as there was no removal of bone tissue.