Lower back teeth and upper front teeth are the most commonly
congenitally missing teeth - every day in our practice we see patients who are
born without a particular tooth or teeth. Furthermore, the top front teeth are most susceptible to trauma and
therefore knocked out or broken beyond repair. If you or your child is missing a tooth or teeth for any reason, multidisciplinary treatment by an
orthodontist, restorative dentist and either periodontist or oral sugeon is the
state of the art treatment.
Braces (and sometimes Invisalign) are used to position the
remaining teeth optimally to create the
ideal space to replace the missing teeth. At the end of orthodontic
treatment, usually a restorative dentist will place a removable
"flipper" with a tooth on it for the short term. More commonly a Maryland bridge is placed for the
intermediate term during adolescent growth and development (see photos), and
finally an implant is placed for permanent replacement (age 18-21).
