A teachable plastic surgery moment from Wimbledon 2011: Treating the "gummy smile"

I was checking Sports Illustrated's web page to get the updates from Wimbledon and they showed a smiling picture of German, Sabine Lisicki, who'd just won her quarterfinal match.

MS. Lisicki demonstrates a phenomena known as a "gummy smile" which is produced most often by an overly tight band of tissue under the upper lip called the frenulum.

Release and lengthening of this band is commonly performed during rhinoplasty procedure (at least in my hands) and produces an instance and sometimes dramatic correction of the smile with much less show of the gums and upper teeth. This surgery takes about 1 minute to do and can be performed under local anesthesia BTW.

Rob