Description
Supernumerary teeth
“A tooth or tooth-like structure which develops in addition to the normal series of 32 teeth.”
– Garvey et al. 1999
The incidence of supernumerary teeth is approximately 1-2% and the majority of supernumeraries occur in the anterior maxilla. It is twice as common in males than females. It mostly occurs in the permanent dentition but can occur in the primary dentition, and on rare occasions it may even present as a neonatal tooth. (Shah et al. 2008, DiBiase 1969).
Supernumerary teeth can occur as an isolated trait or in combination with patients who have macrodontia (i.e. large-sized teeth) or syndromes (e.g. cleidocranial dyostosis, Gardner syndrome etc.) (Cobourne and DiBiase 2010).
