INTERNATIONAL LECTURE · AALZ — AACHEN DENTAL LASER CENTER · RWTH AACHEN UNIVERSITY · 11 MARCH 2021
Laser Gummy Smile Correction
and Cosmetic Dentistry
Dr. Habib Zarifeh’s online seminar for the AALZ laser-dentistry community — moderated by Assoc.-Prof. Dr. René Franzen of RWTH Aachen University and broadcast live on Zoom to dentists across Germany and worldwide.
THE ANNOUNCEMENT — PROF. DR. RENÉ FRANZEN, AALZ / RWTH AACHEN UNIVERSITY
Assoc.-Prof. Dr. René Franzen (AALZ / RWTH Aachen University) announcing Dr. Habib Zarifeh’s seminar to the AALZ audience — 37 seconds, from the AALZ free online seminar series, 2021. Watch on YouTube →
TRANSCRIPT OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT
“Next online seminar is going to be happening on Thursday, the 11th of March — again, 6 o’clock in the afternoon, German time. And here Dr. Habib Zarifeh will present about gummy smile correction and cosmetic dentistry — of course, also using lasers. Down here you have the ID for the Zoom webinar and passcode, and also the link. Feel free to take a screenshot — but of course also in due time, in the days leading up to the 11th of March.”
Spoken by Assoc.-Prof. Dr. René Franzen. Transcript from auto-generated captions, lightly corrected for names.
THE SEMINAR — THURSDAY, 11 MARCH 2021, 6:00 PM CET
On Thursday, 11 March 2021, Dr. Habib Zarifeh — Head of Oral Surgery at Clemenceau Medical Center (CMC) Beirut and holder of the Master of Science in Lasers in Dentistry from RWTH Aachen University, Germany — delivered an online seminar titled “Laser Gummy Smile Correction and Cosmetic Dentistry” for the AALZ — Aachen Dental Laser Center. The session was broadcast as a Zoom webinar on the RWTH Aachen University platform at 6:00 PM German time, moderated by Assoc.-Prof. Dr. René Franzen and organised by Leon Vanweersch of the AALZ.
The AALZ is the Aachen-based postgraduate institute behind the RWTH Aachen University Master of Science in Lasers in Dentistry — the programme Dr. Zarifeh himself completed. Its free online seminar series brought laser-dentistry educators from around the world to a single screen for the German dental community and for AALZ graduates on every continent, with recordings archived on the AALZ website. The series programme ranged from periodontal and endodontic laser protocols to orthodontics, implantology and aesthetics — and the session on laser gummy smile correction was one of its cosmetic-dentistry chapters.
For Dr. Zarifeh, the invitation closed a circle: the clinician who trained in laser dentistry at Aachen returned to the same academic community as a lecturer, presenting Beirut’s cosmetic-dentistry experience to German dentists and to laser specialists worldwide.
WATCH THE FULL RECORDING
Full recording of the seminar, from the AALZ free online seminar archive (hosted on Prof. Dr. René Franzen’s Facebook page). If the player does not load, open the recording directly on Facebook →
WHAT LASER GUMMY SMILE CORRECTION MEANS
A “gummy smile” — excessive gingival display when smiling — is one of the most common aesthetic concerns in cosmetic dentistry, and one of the most frequently misdiagnosed. Its causes range from altered passive eruption, where the gum never fully receded to expose the natural crown of the tooth, to vertical maxillary excess, a hyperactive upper lip or a short upper lip — and each cause calls for a different treatment. Diagnosis comes first; the laser comes second.
Dental lasers — diode lasers for soft tissue and the erbium family (Er:YAG and Er,Cr:YSGG) for soft and hard tissue — allow gingivectomy and gingival contouring with minimal bleeding, precise control of the new gum line, and comfortable healing, usually in a single appointment and often planned together with veneers or a complete smile design. Where bone must be reshaped, laser-assisted crown lengthening comes into play; where the lip itself is the cause, lip repositioning is the appropriate alternative.
As its title signals, the seminar placed laser gummy smile correction inside the wider discipline of cosmetic dentistry — the gum line designed as an integral part of the smile, not treated as an isolated procedure. It is the same philosophy that governs the Hollywood Smile and veneer work at Smile Infinity® and Ferrari Dental Clinic in Beirut, where gum contouring is planned together with the final smile from the first consultation.
THE SPEAKER, AS INTRODUCED BY THE AALZ IN 2021
The seminar’s title slide introduced Dr. Habib Zarifeh with the following credentials:
- Master of Science in Lasers in Dentistry — RWTH Aachen University, Germany
- Mastership — World Clinical Laser Institute (WCLI)
- Postgraduate Diploma in Oral Surgery — Beirut Arab University, Lebanon
- Head of Oral Surgery — Clemenceau Medical Center (CMC) Beirut, Johns Hopkins International affiliated
- President of the Lebanese Taekwondo Federation
- International lecturer in laser and aesthetic dentistry
- Founder of Smile Infinity® and co-founder of Ferrari Dental Clinic, Beirut
Five years on, the same clinician leads oral surgery at CMC Beirut, has grown Smile Infinity® into a trademark present in 12 countries across 4 continents, and continues to lecture on laser and aesthetic dentistry internationally — while serving on the organising and scientific committees of the ISLD World Congress 2026 in Dubai.
ABOUT DR. HABIB ZARIFEH
Dr. Habib Zarifeh — International Cosmetic Dentist and Dental Implants Surgeon · Head of Oral Surgery, Clemenceau Medical Center (CMC) Beirut (Johns Hopkins International affiliated, JCI accredited) · MSc Laser Dentistry, RWTH Aachen University, Germany · Founder, Smile Infinity® Medical Centers — present in 12 countries across 4 continents · Co-founder, Ferrari Dental Clinic (1999) · President of the Lebanese Taekwondo Federation and Taekwondo Hall of Fame® Lifetime Achievement inductee (2026).
It’s not a smile. It’s a signature.