This patient was born without any upper lateral incisors (these are the teeth that normally reside next to the two front teeth).  Since this problem was caught at an early age, the problem was able to be treated without major orthodontics.  An orthodontic retainer was constructed with two false teeth in the lateral incisors place.  Her canines were poised to erupt next to the front teeth, but the retainer redirected the teeth into their proper position.  See if you can follow the redirected eruption in the photos below.  Once the canines had fully erupted, they were in the proper position and there was adequate space leftover for two artificial teeth in the lateral area.  We chose to place a bonded (Maryland) bridge so that no tooth reduction needed to be done.  This will allow the patient to be a candidate for implants when she gets older.