Oral and maxillofacial radiology
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Characteristics of 283 supernumerary teeth in southern Chinese children

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Objectives

This was a retrospective study to determine the characteristics and distribution of supernumerary teeth in southern Chinese children.

Methods

The study population consisted of 208 children aged from 2 to 16 years.

Results

Males were more frequently affected than females in the ratio 3.1:1. Of the 283 supernumerary teeth, 95.0% were located in the premaxilla, 71.5% were conical, 70.7% were unilateral, 29.3% were bilateral, 47.7% were inverted, and 16.9% were erupted. The mean age at the time of diagnosis and removal of the supernumerary teeth was 7.3 ± 2.7 years (the minimum age was 2.1 years) and 8.1± 2.7 years (the minimum age was 4.1 years), respectively. Seventy percent of the children were in the mixed dentition and 81.3% of the supernumeraries were removed under general anesthesia.

Conclusion

In accordance with previous studies, the majority of the supernumerary teeth were located in the premaxillary region, were conical shaped, and remained unerupted.

Section snippets

Methods

The records of 382 children who had visited the Paediatric Dentistry Clinic of the University of Hong Kong, between 1980 and 2006 were identified. The sample was based on walk-in patients and referrals from government hospitals and private medical and dental practitioners. The diagnosis of a supernumerary tooth was made during clinical and/or radiographic examinations. All of the 382 subjects were southern Chinese who lived in Hong Kong. Subjects with poor-quality radiographs, incomplete

Results

Of the 208 children who were included in the final analysis, 157 (75.5%) were males and 51 (24.5%) were females. The mean age at the time that the supernumerary teeth were identified was 7.3 ± 2.7 years, with a minimum of 2.1 years and a maximum of 15.2 years, while the mean age for the surgical removal or extraction of the supernumerary teeth was 8.1 ± 2.7 years, with a minimum of 4.1 years and a maximum of 15.8 years (Table I). One hundred and forty-six (70.2%) of the 208 children were in the

Discussion

Males were more frequently affected than females in the ratio 3.1:1. This ratio is higher than the previously reported ratios for Caucasian populations10, 11, 31 yet lower than the 6.5:1 and 5.4:1 ratios reported for Hong Kong children.13, 32 The variations in the gender ratios can be attributed to racial variation, and to possible sampling differences. Interestingly, most of the patients (80.4%) in this study were in the mixed (70.2%) or primary dentitions (20.2%) at the time of diagnosis, a

Conclusion

Consistent with previous studies, the findings of the present study revealed that most supernumerary teeth were conical, occurred in the premaxillary region, assumed an inverted orientation, and remained unerupted.

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