My 5yr old was born with missing lateral incisor. Treatment?

Question

Oddly enough my 16yr was born with an EXTRA tooth that was surgically removed along with its secodary permanent follower. However, my daughters two front middle teeth sit off to the side because she is missing a lateral incisor, baby and permanent both being absent. There is no gap...just her straight teeth not setting centered in her mouth. Does anyone know what the percentages are for each of these conditions and the treatment options for the latter?

Answer 1

What kind of treatment does her dentist think will be needed when all her secondary teeth come in? Is it mainly a cosmetic issue? Or does it interfere with her bite or somehow threaten her other teeth? If that were the case, maybe (when she has reached adulthood and her bones have stopped growing), extraction and implants could restore a more normal appearance and more natural bite. They don't do implants on children who are still growing so that's not a possibility at age 5. The other thing that comes to mind would be braces, later. This issue definitely needs assessment by a dentist.

Answer 2

I was born also without the tooth that sits next to the front teeth. It is hereditary, and skipped a generation...my grandma had it and then 2 of her grandchildren had similar. My other lateral incisor came in permenantly as a little peg. My teeth have been cosmetically treated. I'm not sure the % of occurence...

Eye teeth are considered the 'anchor' teeth, so it would be best not to move those teeth with braces...so wherever her eyeteeth are, try to leave them there. A 'spacer' can be put in her mouth, in the form of a retainer or braces that will push her front teeth back to be aligned in the middle front and leave the eye tooth where it is, then... once the space in between is wide enough, a porcelain tooth or dental implanted tooth, or a cosmetic tooth can be placed in where the 'missing' tooth should've been.

If her eyetooth is touching her front teeth, then you can get a white corner put on the edge of that tooth to disguise it as the missing tooth, and square off the smile.

If it is not too odd looking you could just leave it and it will give her a unique look. But yes to start right now is good if she wants the change because the teeth seem to move better in children than in adults.

All I know is that it costs about $1500 - 3000 to have a dental implant done and it's quite the process: drilling a screw into the bone and it has to heal around it, then a tooth is attached to that. Very permenant.) Marilyn bridges (a tooth fixed to the teeth beside them) are about $500-$1000. Cosmetic touchups are around $100-300. A porcelain tooth is about $1000 each. Braces? that is entirely dependent on how long she'd need them and she'd only need the top row done.

As long as her bite matches up - that her jaw is aligned and she looks good when she smiles where she won't feel self-conscious, then you could just leave it....but yes, I think jaw and bite alignment is very important, so make sure you have a registered qualified orthodontist taking care of her mouth...thanks for your question, it was interesting to hear that other people do have that outside of our family! I wish your daughter many happy smiles!

Answer 3

I had a primary tooth but found out at my first set of dental xrays that I had no secondary tooth. I had three and a half years of braces, a bone graft and an implantation done. The bone graft was required because the bone into which the implant was to be placed was too thin since there had never been an adult root there. The oral-maxillofacial surgeon took a piece of bone from my chin and placed it in the area of the implant during an outpatient surgery (under general anasthesia). After six months of healing the post was inserted and after another six months the tooth was finally attached. During the time when I had no tooth (after braces when I had a retainer) there was a false tooth attached to the retainer that hid the gap.

Other, less permanent but cheaper, solutions include bridges and dentures.

Information on the genetics of missing lateral incisors can be found at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/dispomim.cgi?id=150400

There is also limited information on supernumary teeth available at the same website.