Prevalence of congenital tooth deficiency: Retrospective cross-sectional study

This study aims to determine the prevalence of congenitally missing permanent teeth in children between the ages of 5-14 and resident in İstanbul. The clinical and radiological records of patients aged 7-14 years were evaluated retrospectively by examining the presence of tooth deficiency, localization and distribution on gender. The data obtained were evaluated statistically by the Fisher-exact Chi-Square test. It was determined that 1604 of a total of 19218 children whose records were examined had congenitally missing permanent teeth, 51.37% of these missing teeth were hypodontia and 0.18% were oligodontia. Congenital tooth deficiency was found more in female (51.99%) than male (48.01%). The most common congenitally missing permanent teeth were maxillary second premolar (40.19%), maxillary lateral incisor (25.20%), and maxillary 2nd premolar teeth (20.06%) respectively and the least common were maxillary and mandibular 2nd molar teeth (0.03%). Mandibular 2nd premolar missing teeth were more frequently incident in females (54.48%) compared to males and there was a statistically significant difference (p<0.05). Similarly, maxillary lateral incisor missing tooth was found to be more frequent in females (54.03%) and there was a statistically significant difference (p<0.05). Detailed clinical and radiological examinations play a major role in the diagnosis and treatment of congenitally missing teeth and are of the essence in terms of early diagnosis of congenitally missing teeth and treatment planning.