Unilateral Maxillary Lateral Incisor Agenesis with Mini Implant Prostheses
Many terms can be used to describe missing teeth. Anodontia is the complete absence of teeth; Oligodontia or partial anodontia means absence of six or more teeth; hypodontia denotes missing teeth, but usually less than six and often the size and shape of remaining teeth are altered as well, congenitally missing teeth or agenesis is defined as teeth that failed to develop or are not present at birth. Agenesis of any tooth can cause dental asymmetries, alignmentdifficulties, and arch length discrepancies but when the missing tooth is in the anterior region of the maxilla, the discrepancies can be quite noticeable. The maxillary lateral incisor is the second most frequently missing tooth after the mandibular second premolar even though Muller et al. found that maxillary lateral incisors experience the most agenesis (not including third molars). Agenesis of the maxillary lateral incisor is also linked with anomalies and syndromes such as agenesis of other permanent teeth, micro...