Hypodontia of primary dentition– a rare case report
Abstract:
Hypodontia of primary dentition is rare. This is a case report of a 4 year old girl child who presented with missing both primary maxillary lateral incisors. The prevalence, possible etiological factors and management of hypodontia is discussed.
Key words: Hypodontia, primary dentition, congenitally missing
Introduction:
The dental literature is abounding with articles describing the congenitally missing permanent teeth; however little has been written describing the congenitally missing primary teeth.
According to the widely acknowledged definition as given by Stewart, hypodontia is defined as absence of one or few teeth. Hypodontia of primary dentition is rare and the reported
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Ravn found that in 80% of the patients with aplasia in the primary dentition illustrated a similar pattern of aplasia in the permanent dentition.7 By four years of age, maxillary and mandibular incisors, canines and first molars tooth buds must be present. In the current case, radiographic examination revealed absence of permanent maxillary lateral incisor and canine tooth buds. They could be congenitally missing or they can be formed later. This case needs to be followed-up to determine the correlation between agenesis of the primary and permanent teeth.
A number of etiologies have been proposed for hypodontia:
Genetic: Genetic control plays a more significant role in the etiology of hypodontia because the incidence among individuals connected to hypodontia patients is higher than in the general population.8 Shimizu and Maeda reported that nonsyndromic or familial hypodontia is more common than the syndromic type.9
Environmental factors: Major environmental factors such as infection of the tooth bud or trauma can also be associated with hypodontia. Somatic diseases such as syphilis, scarlet fever and rickets are also associated with hypodontia, as are nutritional disturbances during pregnancy or infancy. Smoking during pregnancy and maternal medications could lead to dental