Most patients who come to Harbor Hill Dentistry with missing permanent teeth are adults. They lost a tooth either due to an accident, poor oral health, or it is congenitally missing.However, that is not the case in this story.

Anne's dental implant before and after story

Dr. Keith Gressell met "Anne" when she was just 13 years old. The reason for their introduction?Anne was missing one of her permanent front teeth due to trauma.We knew that one day her tooth would need to be replaced with a dental implant, but we also knew that it would be many years before that could happen.

Why can't children get dental implants?

At 13 years old, Anne was not done growing. Her smile and bone structure still had a lot more developing to do. Placing a dental implant now would not be successful long-term and could negatively impact her smile.That is why we needed to take an alternate course of action until she was fully developed/old enough to receive a successful dental implant.

What was it like for Anne before her dental implants?

While Anne was in braces, she had an artificial tooth attached to the wire. This allowed her teeth to move and her smile to look complete.After braces, she wore a temporary removable partial denture for several years (also called a “flipper”).She then transitioned to a bonded bridge that attached to the backside of the adjacent teeth. This was a big improvement over the temporary removable partial denture but still less than ideal.Finally, at 21 years old, she was finished growing and changes in her bone structure would slow down considerably.She was now ready for a dental implant!

The dental implant process

For the placement of her dental implant, we worked with a skilled periodontist, Dr. Jim Janakievski.Dr. J carefully placed the implant in the perfect position. Next, we made a custom temporary tooth that attached to the implant. This is so she didn't have to go toothless during the healing time, and allowed the gum tissue to heal in the precise position to mimic the shape of her other front tooth.Finally, we created a custom abutment to attach to the implant. This custom abutment made it so her crown would emerge from the gum line just like her adjacent natural tooth.To duplicate the tooth nature we gave her on the other side, we needed to capture the shape of the tooth under the gums and the tooth's shading. This required precise lab skills and techniques.For this, we turned to Harald Heindl of Aesthetic Dental Creations to masterfully create the final restoration.

Dental implants before and after results

Anne's dental implants before and after results are astonishing!Without looking at the before picture, you wouldn't be able to tell which tooth is the dental implant.Check out her dental implants before and after photos for yourself:

A dental implants process for a child

It took a team of two different specialists, a top-notch esthetic lab, and a skilled cosmetic dentist to create this ideal esthetic result!That is, in addition to Anne and her family willing to put their trust in Dr. Gressell and the process for children with missing permanent teeth.As Anne said, "What a journey and what a pleasure to work with all of them! My gratitude knows no bounds for this team."If your child is missing a permanent tooth (or even yourself), consult with our dental team on what to do. You can schedule a consultation by:

• Calling us at {{office1-phone}}
• Email us at {{office1-email}}
• Sending us a message