Dental development in children with supernumerary teeth in the anterior region of maxilla

ObjectiveDevelopment of human dentition has been used as a predictor for evaluating the growth and maturity of an individual. It is fairly identical in a specific population, but the effect of development on subjects with dental anomalies had not been fully explored, particularly on subjects with supernumerary teeth (ST). This study hence aims to evaluate the dental development of children with and without ST.Materials and methodsSample size calculation was conducted and 320 radiographs of subjects with and without supernumerary teeth (ST) were obtained from the archives of a teaching hospital. The subjects in both groups were age and sex matched. All the subjects belong to southern Chinese ethnicity aged 2 to 14years. The left-side dentition was scored, and dental age (DA) was estimated by obtaining scores from the southern Chinese dental reference dataset. Paired t test was used to calculate the difference between chronological age and dental age (CA-DA) for boys and girls with and without ST and further based on the number and position of ST.ResultsThe difference between chronological age and dental age (CA-DA) was 0.10years for boys and 0.19years for girls with ST whilst 0.01 and 0.05years for boys and girls without ST (p>0.05). The boys with bilateral ST showed significant delay in dental development of 0.23years (p<0.05). Position of the ST did not have any influence on dental age.ConclusionsNo significant difference was observed in the dental development of children with and without supernumerary teeth.Clinical relevanceUnderstanding dental development of children with supernumerary teeth may be useful in appropriate treatment planning of such conditions.