Abstract
BackgroundThe congenital absence of one or more teeth is a dental anomaly that frequently occurs in the world’s population with a wide variability of distribution. The aim of this study is to assess the current prevalence of dental agenesis in the permanent dentition (excluding third molars) using a sample of Italian orthodontic patients.MethodsPanoramic radiographs of 4006 Caucasian children between 9 and 16 years of age (1865 males and 2141 females) performed over a 5-year period (from 2010 to 2015) were carefully examined to identify congenital missing teeth. A chi-square test was used to determine the difference in the prevalence of hypodontia between genders and between arches.ResultsThe prevalence of dental agenesis was 9% (9.1% for females and 8.7% for males). The most common congenitally missing teeth were the mandibular second premolars (20.3 and 18.1%) followed by the upper lateral incisors (17.8 and 17.7%) and the maxillary second premolars (7.4 and 6.3%). The absence of one tooth to five teeth was observed in 344 patients (8.6%), while 15 patients showed from six to nine missing teeth (0.4%). The analysis showed 363 cases of agenesis in the upper arch (0.64%) and 339 in the lower arch (0.60%). Unilateral (4.6%) and bilateral (4.4%) agenesis demonstrated a similar frequency. The most common bilateral missing teeth were the mandibular second premolars (1.9%) and the maxillary lateral incisors (1.6%).ConclusionsThe results of this study observed a higher prevalence of hypodontia compared to previous studies conducted on the Italian population. Thus, a detailed and careful radiographic examination was important in diagnosing one or more missing teeth. This could help plan the best possible treatments, both esthetically and functionally, for these patients.
Highlights
The congenital absence of one or more teeth is a dental anomaly that frequently occurs in the world’s population with a wide variability of distribution
The initial sample included all panoramic radiographs of Italian orthodontic patients (4196) between 9 and 16 years of age performed over a 5-year period (2010– 2015) at the Dental School of the University of Padua and two private dental offices located in Vicenza and Verona
The female hypodontia prevalence was higher than males (9.1 and 8.7%, respectively), difference between gender was not statistically significant
Summary
The congenital absence of one or more teeth is a dental anomaly that frequently occurs in the world’s population with a wide variability of distribution. The aim of this study is to assess the current prevalence of dental agenesis in the permanent dentition (excluding third molars) using a sample of Italian orthodontic patients. Tooth agenesis is considered one of the most common anomalies of dental development and occurs with a high frequency in the world’s population compared to other development abnormalities [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Congenital or developmental absence of one or more teeth has been described in literature with different terms [2, 3, 7, 9, 10]. More than 49 syndromes have been associated with one or more missing teeth [3, 6]; the main ones are hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia, incontinentia pigmenti, Down syndrome, craniofacial dysostosis, and syndromes associated with growth and development defects [2, 11].
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