Restorative dentistry clinical decision-making for hypodontia: peg and missing lateral incisor teeth.

Peg-shaped and missing lateral incisor teeth are common features for patients affected by hypodontia. While improvements in dental appearance may be a strong motivating factor for these patients, providing dental treatment to improve the clinical condition and achieve an acceptable and stable outcome can be complex and lengthy.For patients affected by hypodontia, discussion and consideration of various approaches to their individual treatment are best achieved in a multidisciplinary team environment. This allows debate of options and joint agreement between at least orthodontic and restorative dentistry specialist colleagues, based largely on clinical factors, towards a treatment plan that is acceptable to the patient. As most patients with this lateral incisor form of hypodontia are initially treated as teenagers and young adults, there is also an understanding that treatment outcomes will have lifelong maintenance and resource implications to consider.This paper identifies and discusses the key clinical features that influence the treatment planning process for a patient with either missing or peg lateral incisor teeth. These will often involve consideration of whether to open or close the lateral incisor spaces and whether to restore or replace a peg lateral incisor tooth. The process should be patient-centred, evidence-based, and aim to minimise the lifelong treatment burden, retaining options for future maintenance and retreatment.

Restorative dentistry clinical decision-making for hypodontia: complex cases.

Hypodontia is a relatively common condition and patients will be seen by both general dental practitioners and specialist dental colleagues. Although hypodontia can be described as mild, moderate and severe, this does not directly correlate with the complexity of treatment required to provide an acceptable outcome. In addition, the complexity of treatment provided by one colleague in the multidisciplinary team may not be the same as for other colleagues.When treatment planning and delivering dental care for these patients, especially those with severe hypodontia, it is useful to recognise the factors that make their care complex and also to follow principles for multidisciplinary treatment planning.

A service evaluation of the multidisciplinary team approach to hypodontia.

Introduction Patients with hypodontia can be seen by a multidisciplinary team clinic (MDT) for treatment planning at the University Dental Hospital of Manchester (UDHM). The MDT consists of orthodontics, restorative dentistry and oral surgery colleagues.Aims and methods A retrospective case-note analysis was conducted on 558 hypodontia patients seen on Manchester Hypodontia Clinic (MHC) between 2016-2022 to assess service utilisation and treatment planning outcomes.Results The average age of patients attending the MHC was 16 (range 8-50). The distribution of mild, moderate and severe hypodontia in the sample was 28%, 37% and 35%, respectively. Most common treatments proposed were fixed appliances, extractions, implants and resin-bonded bridges. Out of 558 patients seen for consultation on the MHC, 365 (65%) were accepted for treatment. The average number of visits for treatment was 15.5 (range: 1-55). The average number of did not attend/was not brought appointments, patient cancellations and hospital cancellations were 0.8, 1.4 and 1.8, respectively.Conclusion Hypodontia patients referred to UDHM are triaged by consultants in orthodontics or restorative dentistry, and if MDT planning is required, they are booked onto the MHC. There are sufficient patients with complex cases of moderate and severe hypodontia to justify a regular MDT hypodontia clinic.

The role of the general dental practitioner in the management of the hypodontia patient.

The general dental practitioner (GDP) is usually the first person to suspect that a young patient is affected by hypodontia. The condition occurs rarely in the primary dentition but is relatively common in the permanent dentition. Between the ages of 7 and 12 years, failure of a permanent tooth to erupt as expected will lead the GDP to initiate and then contribute to the ideal management of the patient's condition. This ranges from reassurance and preventive measures to providing aspects of treatment in a long-term management plan, alongside a multidisciplinary specialist team and thereafter, delivery of life-long dental care.

The genetic basis of hypodontia in dental development.

Dental agenesis is one of the most common developmental anomalies in humans, characterised by the developmental absence of one or more teeth. It can present as an isolated condition (non-syndromic hypodontia) or associated with a syndrome (syndromic hypodontia). This paper aims to review the genetic basis of hypodontia with reference to aetiology, classification and the subsequent clinical features.Significant progress has been made to identify the developmental basis of tooth formation, though there is still a lack of knowledge within the literature of the aetiological basis of inherited tooth loss.Gene anomalies or mutations in WNT10A, MSX1, PAX9, AXIN2 and EDA appear to be most critical during tooth development, leading to various forms of tooth agenesis.

Involving young people and parents in decision-making for hypodontia.

Involving young people and their parents in decisions about their health care is ethically and professionally the right thing to do. Good decision-making relies on informed, value-based deliberation. Providing the right treatment for people with hypodontia is complex, both technically, in terms of the range of options available, and from a communication perspective. Treatment decisions faced by young people with hypodontia can have lifelong implications and the weight of this is felt both by the patient, who may have limited experience of dental treatment and decision-making, and their parents, who act as advocates. It is important that clinicians understand how they can best share the available evidence and their expertise in a way that can be understood and applied. Clinicians also have an important role in facilitating young people to recognise and communicate their own values, expectations, and ultimately, preferences for treatment. This paper outlines the challenges of navigating information sharing and engaging in shared decision-making specific to hypodontia. A scoping review of the literature by the authors was conducted to identify evidence-based advice for discussing uncertainties, risks and increasing engagement in decision-making. This may be useful to both primary and secondary care practitioners involved in decision-making with people with hypodontia.