Arvind Kumar Pankaj

Prevalence of supernumerary teeth in North Indian population: A radiological study

Address for Correspondence: Dr. Archana Rani, MD, Professor, Department of Anatomy, King George’s Medical University, Lucknow226003, Uttar Pradesh, India. Contact no.: +919451950799 E-Mail: archana71gupta@yahoo.co.in Introduction: Supernumerary teeth are defined as any teeth or tooth substance in excess of the usual configuration of 20 deciduous and 32 permanent teeth. The reported prevalence of supernumerary teeth in the permanent dentition ranges from 0.1% to 3.8% and 0.3% to 0.6% in the deciduous dentition. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of supernumerary teeth in the subjects attending the out-patient dental department of our setup, as the reports of this entity in North Indian population are rarely found in the literature. Materials and Methods: Orthopentograms (OPGs) of 1025 subjects were collected from the Department of Oral Medicine & Radiology, King George’s Medical University, Lucknow. OPGs of permanent dentition were only considered for the study. OPGs were studied carefully for various types of supernumerary teeth and prevalence was calculated. Results: The prevalence of supernumerary teeth was calculated according to their location. They were observed in only 0.8% cases. The prevalence of mesiodens was 0.2%, paramolar 0.1%, distomolar 0.4% and parapremolar was noticed in 0.1% case. Considering the morphological classification, only conical variety was seen in 0.2% cases. Males (62.5%) were found to be more commonly affected than females (37.5%). Conclusion: The prevalence of supernumerary teeth was 0.8% in present study of which distomolar was the most common variety. The unique finding was that the females were having tendency for distomolar type only. Supernumerary teeth may erupt or remain impacted and may lead to various complications. Findings of the present study may be useful for clinicians for proper diagnosis and management of supernumerary teeth.