Neringa Sadauskaitė¹, Vilija Berlin²

¹Vilnius University, faculty of medicine

 ²Vilnius University hospital, Zalgiris Clinic

ABSTRACT

Maxillary lateral incisor agenesis is the second most common in hipodontic patients. Because of the incisor presence in the aesthetic zone, it is important to consider aesthetics of the smile while choosing the treatment. The esthetic view evaluation often differs between orthodontics, dentists, patients and laypeople. Orthodontists do not have the same opinion about aesthetics of two treatment strategies: space opening for implant and prosthetics (AAI) or space closure with canine mesialisation with or without canine modification (UAK). Patients and laypeople tend to prefer UAK rather than AAI. Bleeched, narrowed, with flat cusp morfology and gingival margin the same as lateral incisor canine smile is the most attractive in the group of UAK. Taking differences into account, it is important that orthodontist would take expectations of a patient into consideration while planning treatment, because their opinion about the end result might not always match.

Keywords: maxillary lateral incisor agenesis, aesthetics.