Prevalence of the morphological types of supernumerary teeth in 5-16-year old children in Benin City Nigeria

Abstract

Background: A Supernumerary tooth is defined as any tooth or odontogenic structure that is formed from the tooth germ and is in excess of the usual number of the dentition in any given region of the dental arch. An excess of the usual configuration may cause malocclusion which may manifest as crowding, delayed eruption, impaction, diastemas, cystic lesions, ectopic eruption or root resorption of adjacent teeth. Four morphological variants have been identified and may complicate treatment especially if they are embedded within the bone.

Aim: To determine the prevalence of the morphological variants of supernumerary teeth in 5-16-year old children in Benin City, Nigeria
Materials and methods: In this study 984 children (506 male and 478 female) between the ages of 5-16-years who met the inclusion criteria were examined clinically and radigraphically to determine the prevalence of supernumerary teeth. Radiographs which included periapical, occlusal and orthopantomograms were taken to determine the presence of the respective variants within the bone. The differences between groups and correlations between variables were determined with the students-t test and the Pearson correlation coefficient respectively. Statistical values of p<0.05 were considered as significant.

Results: The prevalence of supernumerary teeth in this present study was 1.5% (n=15) and the morphological variants identified were the conical (prevalent in 0.9%), supplemetal, 0.5% and the tuberculate, 0.1%. The maxillary anterior segment had the highest number of supernumerary teeth with 1.1%. Males demonstrated a higher number of supernumerary teeth than females (2:1) but were not statistically significant.

Conclusion: Supernumerary teeth exist in the mixed and permanent dentition of 5-16-year olds with the conical variant having the highest prevalence in the maxillary anterior region.