Prosthodontics & Occlusion · patient case question
What is the best treatment option to address this adult patient's hypodontia?
Patient case: Implant treatment planning
Patient: Male, 38 years old
Chief complaint: “I'm missing some teeth and I'd like replacements.”
History: Ectodermal dysplasia. Skeletal growth complete. Otherwise healthy, non-smoker.
Findings: Hypodontia with several edentulous spaces. Adequate bone volume on CBCT. A single edentulous space between two natural teeth measures 7 mm mesiodistally. Peri-implant inflammation is present around an implant placed elsewhere three years ago.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. Implant-supported prostheses
- A. Fixed partial dentures require sound abutments on both sides of each space, which extensive hypodontia rarely provides, and they demand destructive preparation of the few teeth present.
- B. CORRECT. He is 38 with COMPLETED SKELETAL GROWTH and adequate bone volume. That changes the answer entirely from what it would be in a child. Implant-supported prostheses preserve alveolar bone through functional loading, avoid preparing sound teeth, and deliver far better function and comfort than a removable prosthesis in a patient who will need a prosthesis for another forty or fifty years.
- C. Doing nothing leaves the functional, aesthetic and psychosocial problem unaddressed, and the edentulous ridges continue to resorb.
- D. Conventional removable prostheses remain the fallback where bone volume is inadequate or cost is prohibitive, and they are the correct answer in a GROWING patient — but they are second-best here.
Note: Ectodermal dysplasia patients often have reduced ridge volume and may need grafting. Aim to preserve every existing tooth as an overdenture abutment during the growth years so that bone remains for implants later.
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