Hypodontia (2 teeth missing) in BOTH my children

[twoforj0y]

Well, ka-ching. But asides from that...

Does anyone have experience?

My DD is missing a lateral and has a peg on its corresponding side. The root has not developed properly. She's only 10, none of this is making a physical difference now.

I asked for my DS to be checked and bingo, he is missing the same two outright. He's 8.

Daughter had a fear of dentists, my priority the past two years has been finding great a children's dentist. I was told one of the biggest barriers is as teenagers they get fed up with treatments and fear it all.

Anyway, I'm in Ireland now so not a question for NHS, but I was in the UK and told the wait list was 3 years and I was told as an aside to "go private", the specialist dentist post in our region isn't filled and won't be.

I'm just worried a bit about it all, and if they will feel shy about smiling in those teenage years. And how much it will cost and I need to set preparing for that now. I am assuming I'm looking at a bill of about 80k additional on dentistry. (Four there teeth in total / implants, and orthodontics). It could be more.

Any experience of similar would eh greatly appreciated, and Ireland related resources a massive bonus. Many thanks.

Your 10 year old could do with an orthodontic (braces) opinion now . Worst case scenario is braces (circa £3000 ) followed by a retainer with teeth on it to keep the space open for the missing teeth (circa £400) .

Implants will not be placed until someone is 18 to 21 , a later age in a boy than a girl as they have to complete jaw growth. At today's prices you are looking at £2000 to £3000 per implant.

However, equally , it may be that there is no need to replace the missing teeth as there is not room for them . In which case white filling (composite) is used to disguise the canine (eye tooth) to look like the missing tooth.

If they have a peg lateral ,even is the root is not good , it is sometimes good to keep it as long as possible and disguise it with white filling . They can last decades and it puts off the need for an implant until later.

The main thing is to build up childs confidence in dentists , as you are doing , because the chances are this will be a long haul.

That was me. No lateral on one side, peg on other (which was removed). I had a fixed brace for 2 years, as I had sucked my thumb and teeth were sticking out a bit.
I was lucky, as my canine teeth were neither very pointed nor very yellow. After my brace was removed, my teeth looked completely normal.
No one (except a dentist, I guess) has ever noticed nor commented on my teeth, which are still lovely and straight 35 years later.
I know dentistry has probably moved on since the 80s, but it doesn't have to be about implants etc, which I'm guessing will mean upkeep?

My son has hypodontia and had a retainer when he was 8. He's had maybe 8 baby teeth removed to make way for the adult ones he does have to move down, and will need a brace when he's older (he's 11) to move them into position. He'll always have gaps though, and some baby teeth will remain.

I'm another! Peg has a veneer, missing one had a Maryland bridge for years, recently I replaced with a bridge/crown combo. Cost a couple of grand but certainly not £80k!

Brilliant. Thanks all. Very reassuring.

Implants here are 8 - 10k so I don't think I'm that far off rolling in years of appts and braces! I'm talking euro too.

@Lollygaggle yes we are hoping we can hang onto / build up the peg tooth. We just don't know yet. I'm definitely focusing on their confidence with a dentist and we really hit the jackpot with a lovely dentist for each of them in the one practice.

Oh, I should have said, there are a couple of other problems. A bottom adult molar was spotted on X-ray having a cavity before it erupted. That had to be removed in surgery under general, and the quality of other teeth was poor so she got those silver caps put around them. The objective being to preserve her baby teeth as long as possible. She has Fischer seals on the others now, and new teeth seem to be fine. But, as she has no lower molars on that side they said there may be a problem with the top molars over growing and affecting her bite, as there is nothing to let them know they can stop coming down (very layman's terms here! Can't think how else to explain it) also there is no sign of wisdom teeth on the X-ray the dentist noted, they may not appear either so can't be relied on to fill up gaps. So she's a bit short on teeth :(

It's interesting you have all had some level of intervention already. @doodlyfiddly that is SO great to hear about your teeth and that you've a lovely smile! Our uk private dentist was also suggesting your way as a good path forward but told us to wait for now.

Our new dentist since we moved to Ireland has just made a referral to their partner orthodontics so that conversation will get started and some semblance of a plan.

@titchy I do hope it's not as bad as I'm expecting and that I can absorb the costs as we go along.

The teeth are all coming though well so far so good.

Thanks again for the reassurances!

I should have said, regarding age, that I also had to have a lot of baby teeth out that just would not come out! Then wait for the fully grown adult teeth to come through.
By the time that happened, I was almost 16 when my brace was fitted and almost 18 when it was removed.

DS1 has 7 adult teeth missing 🙀 - actually because it's so severe we have NHS care under the Maxillofacial clinic at our local hospital (very lucky). They did a detailed assessment and took special photos of his mouth that then became a 3D computer model of it. Then they had a meeting with several practitioners and me to agree a plan.

He's nearly 18 now and has been undergoing treatment for 2.5 years. Lots of things going on but for the front missing ones they have moved existing teeth along to provide suitable spaces and the plan is to use bridges attached to the nearest proper tooth. They say they 'could' put implants in but these aren't going to last forever and will need really diligent looking after. Also once he had them he'd be responsible for paying for any replacements later on (£££ for potentially 7x implants). Also of course they say implant tech will improve massively so in the future he can choose that.

One of the teeth is a baby tooth that is staying - if an adult tooth isn't pushing it out a baby tooth can be ok until your fifties, so they are going to build it up to be the size of an adult one.

Just thought you might be interested to know all the alternatives.

Also worth noting that they didn't actually do anything for a few years as they wanted to see where the baby teeth all ended up.

@Catgotyourbrain thanks cat! That's so interesting! How did he fare with all that treatment, had he stayed on board with it all? Yea I am thinking if we can manage with existing baby/moving teeth, then a permanent solution is in with less scope for issues such as implant issues... but I don't know just yet.

That's great the NHS looked after you. So good. I'm in Ireland and the dentist (private) told me I can go to the HSE (nhs equivalent) but they won't do an assessment til she's in 6th class (she'll be 12/13 then) and that it is a bit late to be beginning. I will be keeping all avenues open though.

Glad to hear your son is getting on well with it. Seven must have been a shock for you all.

@twoforj0y he didn’t start his treatment until maybe 15 though. Things need to settle- I’d try and get it done by HSE if it’s a possibility.

he’s got ADHD and anxiety but honestly when you see them that often they become well known. What they’re doing in the chair doesn’t hurt for the most part - it’s changing braces and tightening them, and changing the elastic band fixing (what colour do you want this time? There is a rainbow of choices- red and green for Christmas?) . Afterwards it aches for a few days though.

I’ve just found this thread and it’s nice to find people who understand!
@twoforj0y hope it all slots into place - it’s hard to be patient when you just want to know but it does sound like they’ll watch and wait for a while.

@Catgotyourbrain my ds is in a very similar situation - he’s 16 and a year into treatment (missing 6) - his treatment programme sounds like your ds. He’ll have dental screws next so they can try to move back teeth forward a little to fill in another gap - there’s no guarantee it’ll work but worth a try. Ultimately he’ll need bridges or implants but not until he’s 21. He’s also under the dental hospital as he’s too complex for your average orthodontist…
he’s inherited it from me (I’m missing 3) and still have a milk tooth at the tender age of 50! I had another milk tooth removed 4 years ago as it started to give up - but they’re now fused to my jaw so not the easiest to get out.
Im hoping this condition doesn’t get worse in every subsequent generation leaving any kids ds has with bigger problems - I want to ask his consultant but not when ds is there.

Hi @Monstermunchy (I loved monster much as a kid ) it's nice to see a thread revived! It sounds like your son is in good hands there.

For us - daughter has had an ortho appointment. The orthodontist has put us on a a year to review to wait and see if the lateral baby teeth come out of their own accord. They may be blocking the eye teeth loosening and coming down in the right place.

We were shown photos of spectacular teeth from a 16 year old in the practice who was missing the same two teeth. Her eye teeth moved in to film the gap and they were reshaped. Her teeth were beautiful. I was quite inspired by that!

My son has yet to get an ortho appt although it is confirmed he is missing the two same teeth.

Well at least your daughter is in the system, and you’ll know how it will proceed for you son! They can do marvellous things with composite to make teeth the ‘right’ shape 🙂

My son’s treatment is ongoing but successful so far - the mini screws are working very slowly! But in theory he may have less than a year before everything has moved to where it needs to be - then once he’s old enough (he’ll be 18 this summer) we can move on to deciding how they’ll fill the gaps.

My daughter had 4 missing adult teeth on one side. I was told more often than not, the same teeth on each side are missing, but not her!! She went to the orthodontist quite young (maybe 10?, she's 34 now, so my memory on it is not so great). She also has really small teeth, and natural gaps between them, so the braces weren't pulling the teeth forward to fill the gap even a bit. She eventually had two implants and still has a milk tooth that refuses to budge.
Unfortunately, she suffers with dreadful sickness from anaesthesia, and while the orthodontist doing the implant surgery told her it was impossible to be sick from a local, sick she was, and she looks back on the whole thing as being awful.
She now has two implants and the baby tooth in the gap, which don't fill it, but to be honest, no one bats an eyelid.
We worry so much about looking as near to perfect as we can, but aren't we just playing into the myth by worrying about our children's imperfections. My daughter is fine as she is; maybe my other daughter only having 25% vision from a congenital deformity puts missing teeth into perspective.
I'm not trying to downplay your children's missing teeth, but there is plenty that can be done with braces before you need to worry about implants

@Monstermunchy please keep us updated over time on his progress will you? It's so helpful knowing how this goes for others. Please god the progress continues and you're out the other side of it soon!

Yes of course - I’m glad to have found people going through similar to discuss it with!

Luckily he’s very laid back about it all and his missing teeth are quite random - there’s just one gap towards the front that he’s a little self conscious of, so for now they’re going to put a false one in its place on his brace (I think!) when we go next week.

@lovepets I agree that it’s all generally quite sortable without necessarily going through the expense of implants - and also taking a step back to realise that most people have no idea what others teeth look like is important.

DS, nearly 25, still has 2 baby lateral incisors in his lower jaw. There are no permanent replacements waiting to come up.

My 14 year old has it. Biggest problem at the moment is that one of the adult teeth missing, the baby tooth above it was damaged by the reflux he had as a baby. The baby tooth won't come out on its own and he has to wait 2 years for it to be pulled out.

Joining you, hi. An xray showed age 9 my DD had one adult incisor missing, baby tooth still there.
But now they have realised that she’s got all the adult teeth she’s going to get, so quite a few missing. Getting a referral to the hospital team so just seeing what your options have been.
Edit: She’s 11 now

80k???? I paid "1500 for my implants each and low monthly pay.ents gor some braces later in life. Implant costs vary wildly.
DS had the opposite problem. He grew a 3rd set of teeth above his 2nd set he looked like a shark.
The 3rd set all had to be removed. They were tiny and pointed.

I’m missing 12 adult teeth. I had my last baby tooth removed at 53. Had braces as a teen and have 2 caps and some bridgework to hide the obvious gaps.

kids all have some missing teeth not been a huge issue for any of them.

Little update from us.

The movement from tethering the brace to the mini screws was so minuscule that they’ve decided they have probably moved everything as far as it can be moved - we’re now waiting for an appointment with the restorative team to see what their plan is. I think his brace will come off imminently.

So there are a few gaps to fill (mostly towards the side and back so not really noticeable) and a couple of baby teeth left in situ. His teeth are lovely and straight and I’m sure once he has bridges / implants it’ll look great. He’s 18 in a few months so his brace has been on for 2 1/2 years.

Hope everyone else’s journeys are going well.

@Monstermunchygood to hear from you. Is your son still feeling ok about it all? He’ll be delighted to get the braces off! I remember that myself getting the train tracks removed, it’s so good :)

we are still sitting and waiting… ortho appointment is in the next six months (must check when exactly!) and the two baby teeth they wanted to come out naturally are still there showing no sign of movement. They wanted to remove them so they don’t interfere with the adult eye teeth coming down. Dd is very opposed to shutting being removed. So we shall see! I am not making her do anything.

other child, ds (9) has has no assessment bar an X-ray to confirm the missing teeth. Both kids are in with their dentist this summer so I’ll get more of an idea then.