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Dental and Oral Health (Children)

Missing one upper lateral incisor

06/21/2007

Question:

My daughter is now 18 months and she is avery helthy child. However she is missing her upper left lateral incisor. She got the other 3 already and 4 molars. Is it possible that she will get it later or she will not get it at all. Will she miss her permanent one as well?

Answer:

Thanks for your question. There is a possibility that your daughter is in fact missing her lateral incisor - the overall prevalence for congentially missing teeth ranges from 1-3% of the total population. This could only be confirmed by an Xray evaluated by a dentist. Studies suggest a strong relationship between missing baby teeth and subsequent missing permanent teeth, some studies suggesting the correlation in as high as 100% of examined cases. Have your daughter in a good dental home with a dentist who can track her dental development. Also, treatment planning at later ages is a key to management of missing teeth and resulting orthodontic - spacing issues.

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Response by:

Sarath Thikkurissy, DDS, MS Sarath Thikkurissy, DDS, MS
Associate Professor of Pediatric Dentistry
College of Dentistry
The Ohio State University