I have two peg laterals and they make me very uncomfortable about my smile. A friend told me that there may be a cosmetic solution for this. Can you tell me if that is true? I’d love to have a smile that doesn’t embarrass me.
Tess
Dear Tess,
For those who don’t know what a peg lateral are they are malformations in the teeth where not all the structure develops, leaving that tooth smaller looking than the other teeth. It is a congenital condition and not a result of anything the patient did.
Everyone wants a beautiful smile so I am glad you wrote. Your friend was correct. There is definitely a cosmetic solution for you. In fact, you have a couple of options.
Options for Repairing Peg Laterals
The first is to have them covered with porcelain crowns. Generally, we suggest preserving as much tooth structure as possible so we would not recommend dental crowns for healthy tooth structures. However, your teeth are already smaller, so they will not have much, if any, tooth structure to remove. In this case, it is a great solution.
Another option is dental bonding. This uses tooth colored bonding that will be used to fill in the missing structure on the tooth. Then the dentist can shape it, smooth it, and polish it. The picture above is an example of dental bonding used to repair a chipped tooth. When done well, it blends perfectly with your
Because these teeth are visible when you smile, you want to be certain that the dentist has some artistic skill. This is especially true for the dental bonding which has to be done freehand. With porcelain crowns, the dentist can try them in with a temporary try in paste and allow you to look at them and make sure you are happy with the results. Dental bonding doesn’t give that type of try in. The dentist does it directly on the tooth. My suggestion is you ask to look at their smile gallery to get an idea of what their cosmetic results look like.
This blog is brought to you by Hoffman Estates Dentist Dr. William Becker.