Maxillary lateral incisor agenesis: A review of literature

Introduction: Tooth agenesis is defined as congenital absence of one or more teeth in primary or permanent dentition and is a common oral variation that affects a large population group. Among the missing one’s, maxillary lateral incisor is more frequent causing esthetic and functional impairments in the affected individual. It might be associated with systemic problems, syndromic conditions or other oral anomalies. Management of missing lateral incisors involves a multi-disciplinary approach for rehabilitation of impaired esthetics and function. The current literature review is offered to highlight the important characteristics of this anomaly for better management of such patients. Material and Methods: Several electronic databases were searched. Hand searching was done to short list the relevant articles. A total of 63 studies were retrieved out of which 48 most relevant studies were selected for the review. Results: maxillary lateral incisor agenesis is a common dental anomaly and has been reported to affect a wide group of populations. It can be unilateral or bilateral and females are more prone to be affected than the males. Conclusions: agenesis of maxillary lateral incisors is a common oral variation of either genetic or environmental origin. A comprehensive evaluation of the anomaly would be helpful to develop significant clinical management of the affected patients.