Prevalence of Supernumerary Teeth in Paediatric Dental Patients at UKM

Introduction: Supernumerary teeth are one of the most common dental anomalies. Nevertheless, the prevalence of supernumerary teeth in children in Malaysia has never been documented. Objective: Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of supernumerary teeth in children attending the Faculty of Dentistry, UKM. Methods: Patients' clinical records age 3 to 17 years, from August 1999 to August 2004 were reviewed. Only 490 out of 961 records were included in the study. Results: 15 (3.1%) subjects were found to have supernumerary teeth. 9 (60%) of the cases were incidental findings. The mean age was 8.1 years. A total of 22 supernumerary teeth were found, which were all in the permanent dentition and mostly mesiodens (72.7%). Among the most common problems encountered were delayed eruption (33.3%) and displacement of permanent successor (33.3%). In 9 subjects (60%), the supernumerary teeth were extracted or surgically removed. Discussions: 471 clinical records were excluded from the study due to the absence of orthopantomogram radiograph. The lack of identification of primary supernumerary teeth before their exfoliation may explain their absence from this study. Conclusions: The prevalence of supernumerary teeth in this study (3.1%), were found to be similar to the range reported for Mongoloid population (>3%). As in previous studies, the majority of the supernumerary teeth found were mesiodens (72.7%).