Congenitally missing teeth

[Anonymous]

My 9-year-old just had a dental x-ray showing that 3 of his top adult teeth are congenitally missing. (I've since learned that 20% of adults are missing teeth because they never developed, so I know it's not a huge anomaly.) The dentist recommends talking to an orthodontist about what (if anything) needs to be done at this stage.

Any advice or info based on your own experience or that of your kids?

(Would also appreciate recommendations for an orthodontist in MoCo whom you'd trust with this sort of issue.)

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Two of my top teeth are baby teeth. No adult teeth ever developed. I am 42 and the baby teeth are still hanging in there.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, that's encouraging. (And good motivation to keep the baby teeth in good shape!)

[Anonymous]

My youngest is missing two of her bottom baby teeth. No way to know yet if she will get them as adult teeth. What we were told is that if they don't exist, then likely shell need an implant.

[Anonymous]

This isn't the same, but related - my husband knocked out his two front teeth as a kid and has fake ones. They are easy to maintain and look totally natural. Dr. Vincent Greco in Chevy Chase is great - he does kids' teeth too.

[Anonymous]

I was missing the top two incisors. My dentist gave us two options: implants to replace the missing teeth or just pull the two remaining incisors to make things even. They recommended pulling the teeth because implants can be costly and I needed braces anyway so they could just pull the rest of my teeth forward. I haven't had any issues without those teeth.

[Anonymous]

I have missing incisors too, and so does my sister. Her dentist recommended pulling the teeth together, which looks ok, but only because she has a small mouth. My dentist left the gap, saying that I could get implants. 20 years later I still have not gotten implants because they are too expensive - congenitally missing teeth are never covered by insurance.

[Anonymous]

I am missing bottom molars. I had to get implants years ago. I think it depends though what teeth are missing

[Anonymous]

This runs in my family. I had a few of mine pulled out (since they wouldn't have been pushed out on their own). Then I got braces soon after and the braces basically shoved the teeth over to cover the holes from the missing teeth. Then, I had bonding put on my front four teeth to make them shaped more naturally.

[Anonymous]

I am missing a few teeth - you can't tell. They never came in as baby teeth either. Which is good, because I have a small mouth and they wouldn't have fit anyways.

My brother, on the other hand, has a few extra. Weird...

[Anonymous]

We recently had our son's wisdom teeth extracted. And we were surprised to find on the x-rays he had one extra eye tooth - a third one - that needed to be excised while he was under for the wisdom teeth. I asked the surgeon if this was becoming more common, as in the theory that over time man will develop a sixth finger, was he finding more patients showing extra sets of teeth. He said, no, that the opposite was occurring - because human beings no longer chew on bones, etc., our jaws are getting smaller, not larger, so he is seeing more and more cases of "missing wisdom teeth". So, in other words, over time the jaw is shrinking and fewer and fewer people will have wisdom teeth to pull. So your son is perfectly normal. I loved our surgeon. I'll see if I can pull up his name. He has some very highend tech equipment that became available only in the last two years. Insurance did not cover it, naturally, but it gives him, the surgeon, a 3D mapping of the head, which gives the surgeon a better sense of where to enter the gums to extract the teeth without causing nerve damage. Well worth the cost. And I could see the third tooth clearly in the 3D mapping.

[Anonymous]

I'm missing two molars on the bottom, and had to get two teeth (behind the incisors) pulled from the top when I got braces because my mouth is so small. It was great that I didn't have to worry about getting any pulled on the bottom, thanks to evolution taking care of that for me

I think you should see an orthodontist -- it's possible you'll have to get an implant, but maybe not (depending on your DS's mouth).

[Anonymous]

I'm missing the top 2 incissors too and I never knew I was in such good company! I wore braces for several years as a teen to correct this problem.

[Anonymous]

Yes, you are more evolutionary developed than your cohorts!

[Anonymous]

Many women in my family don't have eye teeth --- like me. I am suprised so many people have that same issue. When I was in my young teens (a long time ago), they tried braces to push teeth together and cover space. Never worked and very painful.
Then in high school a dentist ground down my surrounding teeth & gave me bridges...which don't last (so don't let someone try that on your kid).

In far later life, I got implants. Which are expensive but help me.

I heard from dentist that they think/know implants last about 20-30 years. No one has had them longer than that so don't know what happens later.

I would let your kid grow older before some massive solution is tried.