Hypodontia

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Hypodontia

Get a winning smile

Missing Teeth

Sometimes teeth do not form - the technical term for this condition is hypodontia or developmentally missing teeth. This condition is relatively common with reported prevalence of between 3-7%. It is generally a genetic problem and often occurs in families.

This x-ray shows a child with missing milk and adult teeth (6). Braces are often required when there are missing teeth. There are often two possibilities for treatment:

1. To close spaces and camouflage adjacent teeth to mimic the missing teeth.

2. To reposition the existing teeth so that replacement teeth can be provided to fill the gaps.

An example of missing upper lateral incisors where the spaces have been opened. There are several options for filling in these spaces.

Replacement Teeth

In this instance the spaces have been opened for replacement with glued-in bridges (resin bonded bridges). If done well, the replacement teeth look great and can last for on average about 8 years. Very little preparation is required for the fitting of these replacement teeth.

In this example the teeth have been moved together and the upper eye-teeth have been camouflaged to resemble the missing upper lateral incisor teeth. This is a simple procedure in which white filling material is glued to the teeth. It may need polishing or replacing form time to time if it becomes stained.

The ideal solution is to consider dental implants. These are the best solution and are almost indistinguishable from real teeth. In this case the upper left lateral incisor (on the right of the picture) has been replaced with a dental implant. The provision of dental implants is highly specialised work and requires a minimum space between adjacent teeth.