Dr. Goldstein,
I am missing both my lateral incisors. Right now I have a retainer with two fake teeth on it. I wanted to get Lumineers but I don’t know if I can with this retainer. I want the Lumineers to make my smile more full and warm.
- Amanda in New York
Amanda,
Lumineers won’t really work if you have missing teeth – they only work to cover existing teeth. But the good news is that you have a couple of other options, depending on what you want to accomplish.
If you want to change the shape of your existing teeth, then what would probably be best is to have a couple of dental bridges to replace the missing teeth. A dental bridge involves full crowns covering the two teeth adjacent to each missing tooth. If the missing teeth are the lateral incisors, that would mean you would have crowns on both central incisors, the lateral incisors would be false teeth, and the canines would both be crowns. So you would have a whole new smile.
But if you like how the other teeth look and you just want to replace the missing ones so that they blend in with the others, then your best bet would probably be dental implants. That is much more conservative, because nothing would have to be done to your other teeth.
With either treatment, I would recommend teeth whitening first or your remaining teeth, so that you can have the brightest and loveliest smile possible. Then match the new dental work to the new, whiter color. But be sure you go to an excellent cosmetic dentist who is really artistic. Most dentists aren’t really that artistic.