Clinical observations of odontomas in Japanese children: 39 cases including one recurrent case

Retrospective investigations of odontomas in Japanese children and one recurrent case were carried out. Thirty-nine cases of odontoma in 38 children were treated in the Paediatric Dentistry Clinic of Niigata University Dental Hospital between September 1979 and December 2002. The patients consisted of 23 males and 15 females and their ages ranged from 1 year 2 months to 14 years old. The chief complaints were delayed tooth eruption in 19 cases (five: primary teeth, 14: permanent teeth), retention of primary teeth in 11, incidentally found on the radiographic examination in eight cases, and swelling of the jaw in one case. Thirty-four cases (87%) were associated with tooth eruption disturbances. The most frequently affected region was the maxillary anterior region. Treatment consisted of surgical removal of odontomas in all cases, after which if the impacted teeth did not erupt, exposure of the crown and/or orthodontic traction was performed. Pathological diagnoses were compound odontoma in 30 cases, complex odontoma (n = 7), and compound and complex odontoma (n = 2). A retrospective study of the radiographs revealed the developing process of odontomas in four cases and odontoma disturbed tooth eruption since the early uncalcified developing stage. A recurrent case was a boy aged 6 years 5 months in whom the first surgical removal of odontoma was performed at the age of 1 year 8 months. Recurrence of an odontoma is very rare, but in very young children odontomas are in the early developing stages, containing uncalcified portions, so it is important to perform periodical observations until the succedaneous teeth erupt.