Genetic Basis of Dental Agenesis: Non-Syndromic Hypodontia

Tooth agenesis or hypodontia is one of the most prevalent developmental anomalies of the human dentition which affects up to 8% of the Caucasian population. It is a quite heterogenous condition which describes the congenital absence of one or more teeth and can occur either with a syndrome (syndromic hypodontia) or without (non-syndromic hypodontia). Hypodontia still constitutes a challenging clinical problem. Our insight on the cause of tooth agenesis is increasing as a result of recent advances in the field of molecular biology and human genetics. Further research is needed to establish a genotype phenotype correlation and to fully understand the pathogenesis of tooth agenesis. This review presents the genes and signaling pathways associated with nonsyndromic hypodontia, based on the most current literature and provides an overview of novel genes that seem to contribute to dental agenesis.