Overgrown teeth
Throughout a lifetime, a person grows 20 baby teeth and up to 32 permanent teeth. Sometimes, however, children or adults have more teeth than they should. These are overcomplete teeth. They grow and erupt near the permanent teeth or they do not develop and remain permanently retained in the bone. Such an abnormality in the number of teeth is called polyodontia or hypodontia. It is quite common today and many people live without realizing they have overcomplicated teeth.
What is polyodontia
Overcorrected teeth are extra units in a tooth row. There may be 33, 34, or 36. Although the normal number of baby teeth in a deciduous bite should be less than 20 and the normal number of teeth in an adult is 32.
Most often, additional incisors or canines are added. It is much less common for extra wisdom teeth to grow and they usually remain retained.
Superfluous adult teeth differ from the rest in size, crown, and root development. They may also have a different shape, resembling a spike or a drop.
If the extra units have not erupted, the polyodontia usually does not cause any discomfort. Often, therefore, we only become aware of the existence of overdentures during an X-ray.
Statistics show that 70% of people with polyodontia suffer from only one extra tooth, 25% have two extra teeth, and 5% of patients with the disease have three or more extra teeth.
Causes of overdentures
Until now, scientists have not been able to find out exactly why overcomplete teeth grow. But there are several hypotheses according to which polyodontia occurs in humans:
- As a result of the splitting of a tooth bud.
Hyperdontia can occur if the fetus has abnormal dental plate activity during the embryonic period. This can occur due to various viruses, drugs, a bad environment, or the mother’s abuse of bad habits and abuse of medication by the mother during pregnancy.
- Due to atavism.
There is a theory that polyodontia occurs because the dental system tends to increase the number of teeth, as nature originally intended 6 incisors on each jaw.
Symptoms of hypodontia
Children’s first overdentures occur before birth or during the first six months of life. Polyodontia runs unnoticed in a child. If the extra set tooth erupts, the same symptoms as a normal tooth occur:
- fever
- Swelling and redness of the gum at the teething site
- Soreness
- excessive salivation
- nasal mucous swelling
- disturbance of the stool
What should a parent be worried about? An unusual shape of the erupting tooth and its position in the dentition.
Adults usually show no symptoms. Overcomplicated teeth simply erupt
causing discomfort by damaging the mucosa and making the bite irregular, or they remain in the bone and do not show up at all. In some cases with retained extra teeth
in an adult can be:
- loosening of the permanent units
- occasional discomfort in the extra tooth
- bone deformation if the tooth is positioned at the edge of the jaw
A simple X-ray may help in the identification of polyodontia. Dentists recommend that children at the age of 6 be examined with computer tomography or a panoramic image. In this way, it is possible to check whether the child has the beginnings of all permanent teeth and to identify over-completed teeth.
Where extra teeth can appear
Superfluous teeth can erupt in the dentition or outside the dentition. Then, for example, they grow on the palate above the tooth or on the side of the gum. And if a child has many overcomplete teeth, they can grow in two rows.
The most common places where polyodontia occurs are in the upper central incisors and the molars, premolars, and canines of the upper jaw. Overcomplete teeth are much less common on the lower jaw.
- What overdentures can lead to
- Retention of normal teeth
- Loss of permanent teeth
- Bite problems
- Mucosal trauma
- Pronunciation problems
- Root resorption of set teeth
Development of jaw cysts from the embryo of an overcomplicated tooth
What to do in case of polyodontia
Overcompleted teeth can only be detected with a dental X-ray for certain. Of course, many doctors recommend a panoramic radiograph, but a 2D image does not always show the position of the germs accurately enough, as the teeth may overlap each other.
The CT scan allows for the unerupted extra teeth to be seen and for the extra teeth to be looked at from all sides. In this way, the doctor can draw a complete clinical picture and decide whether and how to remove extra teeth.
A dentist-surgeon performs the extraction of an overcomplicated tooth that has already erupted and is causing discomfort. If the extra teeth have already changed the bite, the orthodontist determines the treatment plan and sequence. He or she will select the correct structure for you to effectively reduce the bite and prescribe extra teeth to be removed.
The orthodontist will prescribe the extraction of extra teeth during the treatment.
Polyodontia is a condition that should not be neglected. It begins as early as the formation of the tooth buds. The occurrence of extra teeth cannot be predicted; therefore, it is important to visit a dentist regularly from a young age. It will help to detect the problem in time and avoid negative consequences.
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