Oligodontia with healthy sons???

[fator...@gmail.com]

Hi, sorry for my english, but i am italian (male). I Am missing 14. I am very very very afraid to have children. Oligodontia ruin entire life. I would never want it for a child.

Is there any father with oligodontia who has healthy children?

Reply me PLEASE.

Thanks a lot.

[Meghan E]

Hi. I can speak of behalf of my father who has 4 congenitally missing teeth (8 counting wisdom teeth). By congenitally, I mean being born without permanent teeth underbaby teeth since birth.

His oldest child only has 2 congenitally missing teeth. His son has a perfect smile and was born with all permanent teeth to come in. I’m his middle child and unfortunately have 6 congenitally absent teeth (or 10 counting wisdom). It’s genetic on my father’s side. Us kids all have the same mother. Possibly her having the condition might play a role in why some of his kids faired better. To recap: 1 child = less teeth missing than him, 1 child = more missing, and 1 is completely unaffected = Nono teeth missing..

To the best of my knowledge, given it’s genetic origin, it can be a gamble in terms of what your children’s teeth would be like. Possibly taking into consideration the mother’s teeth. As I mentioned I have oligodontia too. As a young child my dentist strongly recommended and explained to my parents the importance of setting me up to ensure oligodontia wouldn’t present issues later on in life. During childhood the dentist wanted to pull the 6 baby teeth and give me braces so I’d be on track for implants later on. If you have decent health insurance (as oligondia is coded as medical not dental; it’s very possible that implants are covered. My parents chose to turn the other cheek and did nothing. Now I’m in my late 20’s missing 6 teeth, wisdom teeth, and because the longer one goes without replacing missing teeth - the more the bones in the gums deteriorate. For me, this has meant an inability for jaw bones to remain thick enough to support what healthy adult teeth I do have and now I have 2 permanent teeth that are lose. I can barely eat anything without it puncturing my gums and causing painful bleeding. My point is, if oligodontia is the only factor that’s stopping you from having children; taking the right steps early in their lives (if born with condition) will do miracles and protect them from suffering harmful outcomes of this condition later on. With early intervention they can live noreal, happy lives and be spared the suffering it sounds like you’re experiencing.

[Janel Bechel]

I am not missing any teeth, 2 of my aunts are only missing 2 teeth. My oldest has far to many teeth and had to have some pulled, and got his wisdom teeth in. My middle child is missing 15 adult teeth, no wisdom teeth, he is healthy and happy. No other issues at all. My youngest as far as we can see right now ( hes 5) is only missing 1. This is a rare thing and it is genetic, but its not something we should fear. It has been a long hard road for my middle child, but he handles it well. I was scared to death when i first found out, 15 missing teeth!!!! it is insane, but we are doing everything the Ortho tells us and this are looking up for us, take it one day at a time, and just because its genetic does NOT mean your children will have it, and if they do then you know you've been through it and can handle it, nothing and nobody is perfect. And to just see how far weve come with the treatment makes me happy, he still has a long way to go. His baby teeth are holding up for now (hes 14) but they wont always be there and when they fall out we have to decide on a bridge or wait until hes older to get implants, we are setting things up to where he will only have to get 8 implants in order to have a full smile and a healthy mouth.

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[Meghan E]

Janel,

Your post is helpful. Can you elaborate on what you/your dentist is doing to set your child up to only need 8 implants for a full smile further down the road? How to go about starting the process? Also, have you had any success with insurance coverage/reimbursement where it’s a medical condition requiring dental procedures?

[Janel Bechel]

I started this process by going to the regular dentist, we went and met with 3 Othodontist before finding one we liked, we set up a game plan, his teeth are spaced apart, he has is 2 front teeth but not the Lateral incisor, we are able to move the canine over in their place, we have the 2nd bicuspid and 2nd molar, we are leaving them where they are and keeping the baby teeth for not, thats the top.

the bottom we have the lateral incisor but not the 2 central incisors, we have the canine the 1st bicuspid and 2nd molar, we are leaving all baby teeth, but going to move the lower lateral incisor over so he would only need 1 central incisor, since we have a total of 4 molars, we only need to put in 4 teeth on top and 4 on bottom for him to have a full front smile and enough teeth in the back to chew food without discomfort.

Our Ortho was concerned with his mouth staying full and not looking puckered or "sunk in", so we keep the baby teeth healthy and are careful not to move or disrupt them in any way, i have his xrays at home, i could send you a copy after Christmas so you can see where we started, it was mess!!! The mouth needs to keep as many teeth as possible for bone strength and fullness once you lose a tooth, if a new one doesnt come in its place the bone can actually shrink and be of no use for implants or jaw fullness, we have never been too concerned with having all the molars in the back since we have some adults and baby teeth for now and will get implants for a few later, we wanted to be sure the front of his mount had as many teeth as possible. The orthodontic insurance has paid their portion for the braces, but its only one payment for life and you cant submit more claim unless you switch insurance companies, once he gets older and wants implants, they cover about half of each one, and you can always claim "loss of value of life" due to the fact that a persons mouth and teeth are the first things you see when meeting someone, they typically pay an ok portion of whats needed. They definitely dont cover enough and by the time this is all over, i will have around 10K in his mouth, but since it comes in payments and steps its not that big of a deal, the braces have cost 5K out of pocket, but thats a 4 year plan for us since we have so much to do and since we are moving his teeth slowly to not disturb the baby teeth its a long process. We still have to get the retainer and we have discussed getting a retainer with "fake teeth" built on the retainer if he has lost any baby teeth when the time comes so he doesnt have to be missing teeth until hes 18 and can get implants. We discussed getting bridges instead of implants, but with bridges they actually have to file down the neighboring tooth and attach the fake tooth to the real ones, my ortho thinks this isnt the best action for someone like my son since we have so few teeth we dont want to file any of them down, so implants is the best choice.

I say find a dentist and ortho ( those 2 will work together a lot) that you like, that makes a plan and takes you and your childs feelings into consideration, ask a TON of questions, i even cried while discussing it my doctors understood, we talked for almost 2 hours and not once did he rush me. Having a good team of doctors behind your child can make you feel so much better about it all and therefore make your kid feel good about it, when we are scared they are scared. 

[Karima Nawri]

Thank you so much janel for all this informations, very helpfull