Can braces completely fix a gap without the need for dental implants?

Of course you can! That is one of the advantages of having braces treatment, we are able to close spaces that would otherwise require a dental implant/bridge/denture. This is one of the common reasons why my adult patients decide to have braces.

There are other considerations with regards to the gap. For example, the gap is due a missing tooth that has been extracted a long time, the gap may be difficult to close. It could take a prolonged period of time to close the gap or if the bone in gap is very narrow, complete closure of the gap may not be possible. Also, if you do not require removal of other teeth to align your teeth, then you will have a gap only on one side. Closing the space on one side may result in the midline of the teeth shifting towards the side with gap, which will not look aesthetic. You may be advised to insert a microimplant (a small pin) temporarily to act as an anchor to close the space without affecting the other teeth. This is a simple and usually inexpensive procedure. Once treatment is finished, the microimplant is easily removed.

It would be best to have a detailed assessment done by an orthodontist, who can then advise you on what would be the best way to close up the gap.

Hope this helps and all the best!

Warm regards,

Dr Geraldine Lee

Yes, you can fix the gap if you have too many teeth. If your teeth are really crooked and you lose one tooth, one of the options is instead of using dental implants, we actually close the gap. But that would mean that you need to have more teeth than usual. It’ll just be like a normal extraction. That’s actually quite rare.

If your teeth are neatly lined up, and then your tooth actually cracks, then you cannot do that because if you shift the teeth in front then you’ll just be missing teeth behind. You can shift the teeth -- you can wear braces to do that but only if you have too many teeth.