Closing the Space with Laminate Veneers for Crooked Front Teeth and Missing Mandibular Lateral Incisors at a Nakseongdae Dental Clinic

Hello,

I’m Dr. Park Jeong-gi, director of Seoul Remember Dental Clinic in Nakseongdae.

What we commonly think of as the front teeth, that is, the large front teeth, have the dental name central incisors.

And the second teeth right next to them are called lateral incisors.

Lateral incisors are teeth in which missing teeth or shape abnormalities occur relatively often.

In particular, the maxilla often has peg-shaped lateral incisors that are smaller than normal, while in the mandible, the permanent tooth bud itself is often missing.

If a tooth is small or missing and there is a gap because of that space, what should be done?

Today, at the Nakseongdae dental clinic, we will look at a related case and explain how the problem was solved.

Treatment period: 2025.12.10 ~ 2025.12.24

These are clinical photos provided to help understanding, and the body text was written based on objective information.

Looking at the intraoral photos, all of the upper front teeth are fortunately present, but their alignment is unfortunate, and the lower front teeth are missing two lateral incisors (numbers 32 and 42).

If you look closely, the upper teeth feel as though one is slightly protruded and crooked, so the lengths of the incisal edges are all different and the lines do not match.

In the lower teeth, because there is a gap, the space may often show when speaking, which can be bothersome.

Through that space, there may be various inconveniences, such as speech sounds leaking, saliva coming out, or food getting through.

At the Nakseongdae dental clinic, we judged that because of the widened gaps and slightly misaligned teeth, conditions were favorable for plaque and tartar to accumulate easily, which could also make periodontal inflammation more likely, and above all, the spaces between the front teeth significantly reduced aesthetics.

So for this case, we thought that laminate veneers would be a good option.

To close the space in the mandible, orthodontic treatment would require moving the entire dentition, and that would inevitably change the bite, which could turn into full-mouth orthodontic treatment.

That would also take a fair amount of time and cost, so laminate veneers are more suitable when a satisfying change is desired in a shorter period.

Laminate Veneer Result

At the Nakseongdae dental clinic, we will show the result of performing laminate veneers on the six anterior teeth of the upper and lower arches.

Because they look so natural and realistic, they are sometimes called "real veneers." What do you think?

To fill the empty space, the size of the mandibular anterior teeth was made slightly larger, and the result seems even better than expected.

The upper teeth were also neatly aligned while the slightly crooked arrangement was corrected, and the shade was made brighter than before.

When the upper and lower teeth are brought together, the upper teeth do not cover the lower teeth too much, and they are made to show a little more than before, so they will look better when you smile.

The real veneer case shown today at the Nakseongdae dental clinic is not possible in every case.

Sometimes a fundamental solution through orthodontic treatment is needed, or in other cases, it may be better to cover the teeth entirely with a prosthetic restoration such as a crown.

So when there is something you want to improve only in a small area of the teeth like this, please have a thorough discussion with your attending dentist and make a decision you won’t regret.

That concludes what we prepared today at the Nakseongdae dental clinic. Thank you for reading. In the new year as well, based on trust, I will provide only proper treatment that can be remembered. This was Dr. Park Jeong-gi of Seoul Remember.