[sedawson]

My 9-yr-old has just had x-rays and turns out he's missing four adult teeth completely - two top and two bottom front teeth. They were never present and will never appear. I had no idea this was a thing! Will be seeing orthodontist and I presume they will either whack some braces on to preserve enough room for implants in early adulthood, or try to move the remaining teeth closer together. Either way I'm not thrilled...

No one wants their child to have dental problems, right? Does anyone have any experience with hypodontia that they can discuss with me? I'd be really happy to hear them if so.

[~flaxen~]

I will be watching this. DS2 is missing one baby tooth and according to the one dental visit we have had is missing the corresponding adult tooth as well. There was some talk of pulling another tooth on the other side to even things up and then braces. We are seeing a different dentist again in a few weeks time for a checkup so will see what they say.

[KRT]

I think it's not uncommon. I only had three wisdom teeth, and I know a couple of other people with missing wisdom teeth too. It's probably different with wisdom teeth, though!

[leo the lioness]

One of DD's friends has four adult teeth missing as well. Was only just talking to her mum about it on Tuesday! Her mum was saying they are going for braces at the moment and she will need implants down the track.

[morgansacre]

I have four adult teeth missing....in fact this runs in my family, all my children have one or more teeth missing.

Three DDs have only three wisdom teeth, I have only had two, both fell out.

I never knew there was an actual name for it, but it is very common.

Lynn

[**Xena**]

I have 4 missing teeth. 3 baby teeth have fallen out now and I still have one left that has no adult tooth to grow into the space.

It's very often hereditary.

[Amy 1976]

I have 8 teeth naturally missing. The ones next to my front teeth, two top molars and all four wisdom teeth.

I had orthodontic work as a teen in the early 1990's and, as was usual at the time, I had two more teeth pulled out on the bottom to even things up and everything was sort of pushed forward to close the gaps.

Two baby teeth (molars) were left in place on the top. These eventually had to be pulled out when I was 30 years old.

I now wear a partial denture on top to fill the gaps where the baby teeth came out. I could replace this with two dental implants if I wanted to.

My teeth look great and the missing teeth haven't caused any problems.

These days I believe it's more common to leave all existing teeth in place and make space for dental implants when doing orthodontic work.

It will be expensive but your sons teeth will end up looking great and will work as well as anyone else's.

[happygurl06]

I had six baby teeth with no adult teeth to come through. 4 are molars and two are the top canines . So far I've lost two molars due to decay, and one canine that we keep capping. The others we keep an eye on... At the sight if any decay the dentist cleans and fills. Apparently they prefer not to do root canal in then that's why the two that decayed too much had to be extracted.

The canines I'm hoping last because for my vanity I'd want implants if they had to be extracted and that a lotta $$$.

[Cirrus]

Has he lost the baby ones yet? I found out through xrays that I was missing two adult teeth under baby teeth, but those baby teeth never fell out. In Uni years I had them removed at the same time as wisdom teeth and I think one may have started to wobble a bit before that.
Then once the gums had totally healed, I had implants put in which was a series of appointments over maybe 6 months, and about $10,000 I think (no private health insurance). I wonder(doubt) if they would do implants in a jaw that was still growing as the screws bond to the bone and the teeth are designed to match your other adult teeth in colour etc. Implants are great and will last a lifetime without smoking and good dental hygiene.

[Pretz]

I never had any wisdom teeth at all-Yay!

This was in interesting thread- I never knew so many people didn't get all of their adult teeth!