A Survey of Hyperdontia in Indian Children: 250 Cases

Supernumerary teeth (Hyperdontia) are a rare alteration in the development of the maxillas, which can appear in any part of the maxillas and can affect any tooth. They can be associated with a syndrome or they can be found in nonsyndromic patients. Hypodontia is defined as developmental absence of one or more teeth. Only children with supernumerary teeth were included in the study while patients having supernumerary teeth with associated syndromes were excluded. Supernumeraries were detected by clinical and radiographic examination. The results indicated that males were affected more than females with a sex ratio of 2.9: 1. Single supernumerary tooth was seen in 79% of the patients, 20% had double, and 1% had three or more supernumeraries. Premaxillary supernumeraries accounted for 93.8% of the cases. Conical shaped supernumerary teeth were the most common type (59.7%). Majority of supernumeraries remained unerupted (65%). Fusion of supernumerary tooth with a regular tooth was observed in 4% of the patients. Talon cusp, an associated dental anomaly, was seen in 5% of the cases. Simultaneous hypodontia occurred in 2.3% of patients with supernumeraries. Although supernumerary teeth are asymptomatic in most cases, they may lead to malocclusions, aesthetic, functional and psychological problems. This investigation was to study children with supernumerary teeth who visited the Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Shankar Multispecialty Dental Hospital, Kakinada, East Godavari Dist., Andhra Pradesh.