Prevalence of natal/neonatal teeth in cleft lip and palate infants

Although the occurrence of natal/neonatal teeth is a rare condition, we consider important clinical problems confronting pedodontists treating cleft lip and palate (CLP) infants. In daily clinical practice of the Pediatric Dental Clinic of Kyushu University Hospital, a high frequency of natal/neonatal teeth in CLP infants was observed. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of these anomalies in 55 CLP infants, who registered at the Hospital for 1 year 9 months from December of 2006 to August of 2008. As for distributing of the type of CLP among 55 infants, 39, 10 and 6 infants were unilateral, bilateral CLP and isolated CP, respectively. The prevalence of natal/neonatal teeth found in this study was 9.1% (5/55) in 55 CLP infants. Of these, 30% (3/10) were observed in bilateral CLP and 5.1% (2/39) were unilateral CLP. No natal/neonatal teeth were found in isolated CP infants. Further, all the cases were found in the maxilla except for one case. Thus, natal/neonatal teeth appeared at high frequency in CLP infants.