DD Missing Lateral Incisor Teeth (NO PERM. TEETH!) update#59

[kadesha]

My sister and I have this exact problem. The dental work was too much and too expensive so we just grew up keeping those baby teeth. I ended up having to get them pulled when I was 20 because they were pretty much chipping away. I had gaps for a while but luckily my top wisdom teeth came in and pushed the gaps together. I still have some small spaces but nothing too embarassing for me to do anything about. My sisters gaps didn't close because she didn't grow wisdom teeth so she has a little wire thing with those 2 teeth on it that she wears. She takes it in and out. They mentioned doing the thing where the teeth screw in but she didn't want to do it.

 

[MKCP84]

I too am surprised with the response of the number of people having this same problem. My DD17 first went to the ortho in 6th grade for consultations, 8th grade received braces (had them on for 3 years), June 2009 had surgery for the implant posts, and last January received the implants. All of the above doctors and dentists made sure she was done growing before they took the braces off and inserted the implants.

Yes, it was an expensive process, our dental insurance paid for about 1/3 of it, but she now has a beautiful smile. The ortho took a picture of her smile at her first consultation back in 6th grade and then a final picture of her smile last year after all of the work was done and all I can say is it was worth every dime and a good investment!

One last note, she still has 6 baby teeth in the back molars. The dentists said she if took good care of her teeth those should last her for many years to come.

 

[Cindy B]

I had a bunch of baby teeth and no permanent teeth- I think at least 4. I remember getting four pulled and one remained.

They put braces on the one and it still remains. I'm 40 and no issues.. except when I go to the dentist-- someone (usually the assistant) says.. hey you still have a baby tooth.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

I'm missing my lateral canines and some molars. One canine has crumbled enough that when I feel of it with my tongue I know it has, but no one can see it and the dentist says the tooth is sound -he thinks I chipped just the isty bit of and that's what I feel.

I have two cavities in the two back molars, but the dentist just filled those easy peasy.

On the plus side, my wisdom teeth came in straight, no problems and I didn't have to have them pulled, probably because of those smaller teeth in the front.

 

[disneymomto5]

This could be written by me. I have this problem, my oldest son has this problem and my youngest son has this problem! They say it's heriditary.

Anyway, in my case I kept my baby teeth and all other teeth were pulled together. It worked out fine, but my jaw does crack everytime I open wide (not sure if that's a side effect or not).

My oldest son we went the implant route. He wore braces for two years, then had a retainer with false teeth in them so it would look normal. After he had done growing (he was in college), they started the implant process which took several months. In the meantime it looked awful because he had these metal "teeth" right in the front of his mouth. The after effects are that it looks beautiful, but the cost of the entire procedure was shocking. At the time they did not tell me that insurance would not pay for implants (at least mine didn't). Total cost of braces, plus implants $15,000!

Youngest son has not had braces yet, but I'm going to find an ortho that will do something else than implants. I'm not going to pay for that again, and it upset me tremendously that the doctors did not tell me upfront what this was going to cost. It's ridiculous!

 

[fauna74]

My DS13 is also missing those teeth. I was also presented with the "push them all together" or "make space and do implants" choice. I chose the push option because it just seemed easier. And the only person I know with implants was a friend's mom who said they hurt like anything for almost a year.

I've skimmed this thread, but the only thing I haven't seen mentioned is that they can use veneers to (easily & painlessly) make the pushed together teeth look perfectly normal.

 

[we3peas]

My dd12 was always missing the small tooth next to her front tooth on the left upper. Xrays always showed nothing was there, so no adult tooth for her. Then on Thanksgiving Day when she was 5 she had a bike accident and lost her left front adult tooth which had just come in. We looked as hard as we could for it but we think it ended up shattering into pieces because we never found it. Now for the last 7 years we have been dealing with her mouth problems. Luckily for her and us she doesn't care what she looks like, it's not an issue with her.
We have gone the route of retainers with fake teeth just so she looks "normal" but they always broke. Finally she just went without. Unfortunately her canine tooth on the left moved horizontally into the open space left by the missing teeth. That's when we had to get serious about what to do. We are on our 2nd orthodontist and she has been in braces for over a year now and has at least a year to go. We made the decision to move her canine back to where it is supposed to be and NOT use it as a front tooth. The 1st ortho tried to sell me on that idea and wouldn't consider any other which is why I changed. He was older and wasn't into newer methods so we went with someone who was more open minded with how to fix this problem.
We have had a consultation with an implant doctor already and she won't have implants until she stops growing. She will need 2 face xrays showing no change before he will go ahead. This is a year long process as they have to implant screws in the jaw and wait for them to heal and then add the posts and then wait for them to heal and then the teeth get added. So probably not until she is 16/17 if she is like me, longer if she takes after her dad. After her braces are off she will have another retainer with "fake" teeth as placeholders to keep the spaces open. The fake teeth DO NOT work in the braces they fall off alot so she doesn't wear them. As I said she doesn't mind. Maybe because she is homeschooled but no one bothers her about them. And if someone asks she tells them she had a bike accident.
Just a warning, since you don't seem to have good insurance. All the specialists you will see will want their own xrays, etc. and you will pay for each set. It gets really expensive. In 1 month she had 3 sets of xrays done, and after insurance we still had to pay 75% since our insurance wouldn't cover multiple xrays for the same person at different dentists.

Good luck on your journey through this maze. I can't wait for it to be over and we still have 5-6 more years of it to gt through.

 

[MrsPete]

We have a similar situation:

When we started braces for my now-16-year-old daughter, we knew that she was missing one permanant tooth -- it's the one right behind the insisor, can't think of the name, but it's a little less visible than the insisor.

We talked to both the orthodontist and the dentist about our choices, and they agreed that it would be best to KEEP the baby tooth in place. It is a healthy tooth, good sized so that it looks like an adult tooth. The dentist said that his dental partner had a baby tooth that stayed in place into his 40s, and he pointed out that IF my daughter's luck was that good, better options would exist for replacing the tooth by the time she's an adult. Her teeth are small, and taking it out didn't look all that attractive an option.

So we took their advice, kept the baby tooth and put braces on it.

We gambled, and we lost. When her braces came off, the dentist did an x-ray and said that the roots of the baby tooth are dying out. The tooth will probably come out within the next year, although right now it appears to be perfectly healthy.

This'll leave her with a gap, and her teeth will move, ruining the work of the braces -- unless we either get her a bridge or an implant. Both the dentist and the orthodontist agree that the implant is the better option, BUT -- and here's the kicker than no one shared with me 'til after the braces were off -- the dentist won't put an implant in a child under 18 or 19 -- he'd feel more comfortable with someone over 20 or 21. He says that she may still be growing, and that could really cause trouble later. The orthodontist says he's being uber-cautious and another dentist would likely do the implant on her as a minor. I tend to agree with the orthodontist. If she were a boy (and thus more likely to grow even after 18), I'd be worried. But I understand that girls aren't going to grow much after their period begins, and that was a full six years ago for my daughter. She's already 1.5 inches taller than me, and I just don't believe she has much growth left in her. I would okay the implant today (if the baby tooth fell out today).

So at this point we're just hoping that the baby tooth holds on 'til she's older. We have no IMMEDIATE problem. The baby tooth is healthy, but I am very fearful that it may come out soon. Sometimes I tell my daughter to chew on the other side! When it does come out, I want to get the implant ASAP.

And I'm very concerned about my younger daughter, who is missing 3 permanant teeth. She just had her last baby tooth pulled -- it was placed in a funny way and wasn't going to come out on its own. Now hopefully that last adult tooth will drop into place, and we can move ahead with braces in a year or so.

I have purposefully WAITED on her braces. I don't want her to get them off 'til she's a junior or senior in high school. IF she has problems similar to my older daughter, I'd rather she be "full grown" and as close to 18 as possible so that HOPEFULLY we won't get into this same "gotta wait on an implant" deal.

 

[Gigi22]

DH (57) has the same problem. He only has 14 permanent teeth, and he still has 3 baby teeth. The absence of permanent teeth is genetic in his family--a number of his siblings have the same condition. As well his teeth are all very small sized.

When he was 18, he was operated on at the university dental school to cut back his gums so that they could make his teeth large enough to allow the dentist to attach partial plates to his teeth. He still has partial plates.

We looked into implants a few years ago. The cost was the same price as a very nice new car. We were also told that the failure rate for implants was about 20%. So, no implants yet--we may have to look into them again, if more of his teeth fail, as he will still need something to attach his partial plates to. I don't think he would ever agree to more than one or two implants at most.

 

[AmongMadPeople]

It makes me feel good knowing so many other people have this problem! I've never met anyone with this before.

I'm missing the same two teeth as the OP's daughter in addition to one of my bottom front teeth and all of my wisdom teeth.

By 3rd grade we were mapping out a plan for how to deal with the missing top two. I decided to have my braces make a big enough space for additional teeth, rather than pull my teeth forward and reshape them. After my braces were taken off, I had a retainer with teeth in it for a year or two. Never had any problems with that.

Then, I had two Maryland bridges put in. I have seen lots of people taking about bridges for this, but I'm not sure if they are talking about traditional or Maryland bridges. Maryland bridges retain the teeth beside the open space. I have had them 10 years now, and had each one re-glued once (both were caused by me carelessly eating something hard).

My current dentist has really been pushing for me to get implants now, since I haven't had a tooth there for well over 10 years. Without a tooth to support there, my jaw bone could weaken to the point it can't support an implant, and I would need a bone graft.

Right now, I'm ready to see my oral surgeon for a consultation on the implants, but I'm so nervous/hesitant about it. I was very self-conscious about my smile before I finally got the retainer with teeth, then my Maryland bridges. I am not looking forward to months of healing without my bridges in place. I know if I'm going to ever do implants, I need to do them now, but I don't want to leave the comfort and safety of what I have now.

If anyone did get implants to treat this, was all the hassle and money worth it?

 

[Piper]

When my dad died at the age of 70, he still had 2 baby teeth and they were still in good shape. He has been gone 30 years now--so that was before the age of implants, sealing teeth, etc.

 

[weHEARTmickey]

Gosh, there's SO many options! (And possibilities of failures.) The orthodontic surgeon we were referred to is known in our area for doing tricky pediatric dental surgeries. She has the steady hand to do implants on children, carefully maneuvering around nerves.

Has anyone out there heard of implants on children? As long as DD has her baby teeth, we won't have to worry about it. Reading about the child who kept the baby tooth with braces, lost the tooth, then had to worry about the other teeth filling in that gap scares me!

 

[surfergirl602]

I can't help with your situation, but wanted to add that I was born with two sets of adult teeth. One set behind the other on the roof of my mouth. Had them all pulled as a child. Never had a problem with space. In college, my wisdom teeth began to come in and my dentist sent me to an oral surgeon who told me I had enough room back there and they were coming in straight, so just let them come in. I was miserable and in pain for months. I feel so bad for babies who have teeth coming in. It's painful and just makes you feel like crap until they're done growing.

The same thing happened to me with my wisdom teeth. Only two came through. My mom never had them removed because she took the dentists word for it. Well, at the age of 30, I had to have them all surgically removed because they started to shift, and one turned into an abscess. My front teeth are now a bit crooked because of it. It was the most painful thing I've had to endure for a while!

 

[ajh88]

I just turned 26 and am missing 8 teeth total. The dentist had already pulled my baby teeth before realizing I didn't have 2 permanent teeth for lateral incisors. It wasn't a big deal. Starting in 6th grade I got braces and wore them for a total of 5 years and what my dentist did was pull all my teeth foreward on the top. They then shaved the teeth down a little so they didn't have the pointed look. Noone even knows now unless they have a background in dentistry. I did have fake teeth attached to my braces for a short while and I will say this, I hated it. I am so glad we went the route of just pulling the teeth foreward. Hope this helps!!

This is what I had done as well. I am also missing my 2 lateral incisors. Pulled all my teeth forward and had some cosmetic work done to make make my canines look a bit more like incisors should. Prior to getting my braces at age 13, I had oral surgery to remove 6 remaining baby teeth and 2 wisdom teeth (the other 2 weren't formed yet or something - I don't know but they didn't remove them). Honestly though, I didn't have huge gaps where teeth should be - pulling the teeth forward or pushing them back would have been about the same amount of work, KWIM? If I would have had a large gap on each side already, we may have been more inclined to push back and do a bridge (or whatever other options we had).

I did wear braces for longer than "normal" - about 3.5 years total. And now, 20 years later, I do notice my top teeth have small gaps between them that weren't there when the braces first came off - probably due to shifting over time since my teeth aren't "all there" on top. An easy fix if I ever want to address it but it isn't a big deal to me right now.

 

[LuluLovesDisney]

I'm 30 and I have 3 congenitally missing teeth (same as your DD) and 2 of my wisdom teeth were also congenitally missing. People often don't know about this issue, but don't panic. I still have all of my 3 baby teeth and I guess I saved money by never having to deal with 2 of my wisdom teeth.

I did have braces on my baby teeth and I was just told to take good care of them, which I have

One of my baby teeth is starting to die (I can see from where a tiny bit of the gum is pulling away, and from x rays that shows the roots shriveling a little). However, it is still in there. When it goes, I will probably get dental implants so I don't need to shave down two healthy teeth for a bridge.(I've never heard of "Maryland bridges" until the poster who brought that up, sounds like something to research!)The other ones still have great roots and no problems, so that's good.

I would just instill in your DD the importance of brushing and flossing so she can keep them as long as possible. My dentist had a congenitally missing tooth and his (only one) lasted till he was 24 and mine have lasted even longer. It might never become a budget concern for you as now if they fall out, it comes out of my pocket, not my parents'.

Good luck to you and your DD!

 

[Tink-n-MrIncredible]

Sorry I have not read through the entire post hope this is not a repeat. We are going through the same thing right now. My DD is missing one of her incisors also. Tomorrow (1/10) we will be getting braces, she will have a gap open where the tooth is missing. When the gap is wide enough he will put a fake tooth on the brace to look like her missing tooth. My Orthodontist said they have a new glass tooth out that will be attached to a bridge. They mirror the other tooth and make a copy for the missing side. That will be an option for us to use when her braces come off in about 2 years. My Orth told me it is very common for people to be missing permanent teeth. Just hurts when it is your child and the missing tooth happens to be in the front. Good luck in your journey

 

[spacemountainmom]

I guess missing permanent teeth is common. I am missing two on the bottom and my sister is missing two on the bottom and one on top. My sister is 40 years old and still has those three baby teeth.

I had a problem with my one baby tooth. The root wrapped around the jawbone and it was sinking into my gums. My teeth were starting to tip over so the dentist elected to remove the baby tooth and put something called a Marilyn bridge in when I was 13. That bridge lasted until I was in my mid to late 20's. I then ended up having a regular type bridge put in. I am 42 now and still have the bridge. I also still have one baby tooth.

I haven't read all the posts, but don't wonder if getting another opinion might be a good idea. Good luck!

 

[LMC]

My DS is missing 9 of his permanent teeth. I don't remember if this includes wisdom teeth, if not he is also missing 3 of those too. He had to have braces at age 7-8 to close up the front gap and now he has a wire behind those two teeth to keep them together (he is 15 yo now). He has spaces where the incisors should be. You shouldn't get the implants until they have stopped growing, late teens or early 20's. But you can correct the immediate problem of the gap in front.

 

[weHEARTmickey]

We saw DD Orthodontist (for the 1st time) today. She took several pictures & a panoramic x-ray of her mouth. We were hoping she could keep the baby teeth while wearing braces, retainer, etc...then replace baby teeth with implants once they fell out. Well, that's NOT gonna happen.

Her canines are basically RIGHT on top of her baby lateral incisors. So, the canines will eventually resorb the incisor roots, causing her to lose her baby teeth within a year or two. So we will have to have the "fake teeth" connected to her brace wires (and then retainer.)

Dr. doesn't want to put braces on until DD loses 10 more teeth!!!!!! She still has to lose both upper lateral incisors, both upper cuspids, both upper bicuspids, both lower first bicuspids, and both lower second bicuspids. Sooooo, Dr. says she doesn't want to see DD for 9-12 months. She doesn't think DD will even be ready for braces for 1.5 to 2 years. She will not be ready for implants until she's close to 18 yrs old (or whenever she stops growing.)

We didn't even discuss price because who knows what it will be in a couple of years! We weren't charged a dime for the exams and x-rays. We were VERY impressed with Dr. and her assistant. They knew precisely what they were doing and said they dealt with these missing teeth constantly. Just thought you may all want to know how this turned out Have a great week!

 

[LuluLovesDisney]

We saw DD Orthodontist (for the 1st time) today. She took several pictures & a panoramic x-ray of her mouth. We were hoping she could keep the baby teeth while wearing braces, retainer, etc...then replace baby teeth with implants once they fell out. Well, that's NOT gonna happen.

Her canines are basically RIGHT on top of her baby lateral incisors. So, the canines will eventually resorb the incisor roots, causing her to lose her baby teeth within a year or two. So we will have to have the "fake teeth" connected to her brace wires (and then retainer.)

Dr. doesn't want to put braces on until DD loses 10 more teeth!!!!!! She still has to lose both upper lateral incisors, both upper cuspids, both upper bicuspids, both lower first bicuspids, and both lower second bicuspids. Sooooo, Dr. says she doesn't want to see DD for 9-12 months. She doesn't think DD will even be ready for braces for 1.5 to 2 years. She will not be ready for implants until she's close to 18 yrs old (or whenever she stops growing.)

We didn't even discuss price because who knows what it will be in a couple of years! We weren't charged a dime for the exams and x-rays. We were VERY impressed with Dr. and her assistant. They knew precisely what they were doing and said they dealt with these missing teeth constantly. Just thought you may all want to know how this turned out Have a great week!

Thanks for updating, sorry it didn't go perfectly but I am happy you are impressed w dr. and assistant. That peace of mind is priceless. I hope things go well. I will keep you updated whenever my baby tooth falls out so I can share the implant process with you