Prevalence and presentation of hyperdontia in a non-syndromic, mixed Nigerian population

Although there have been studies on the prevalence and pattern of hyperdontia in sub-Saharan African subjects with similar cultural backgrounds, based on our search, none have been able to consider these epidemiological parameters in a multiethnic black population, which is expected to add substantial knowledge to what is available.

This is a retrospective study on the panoramic radiographs of subjects who presented at two dental centres in Abuja, Nigeria between June 2013 and June 2018. Radiographic interpretations were carried out by three independent observers, trained on computer assisted radiographic image interpretation. Data were collected and analyzed using Statistical package for the Social sciences (SPSS) version 22 (IBM Corp, Armonk, USA).

One thousand eight hundred and thirty seven (1837) panoramic radiographs were studied. Subject comprised males and females between ages 12 - 95 years with an average of 35.0 years. The prevalence of unilateral hyperdontia was 1.47% while an occurrence rate of 0.27 was observed for bilateral and multiple hyperdontia. For maxillary hyperdontia, a prevalence of 1.09% was recorded which was significantly more common than the mandibular type (0.65). Of note is that all the supernumerary teeth types were commonly observed in the maxilla except the parapremolar type, with a mandibular occurrence rate of 76.9%.

From this study, we can conclude that the prevalence of hyperdontia (across different black ethnicities) is low. Although, follicular epithelium around the tooth and root resorption of the enlargement around the adjacent teeth was observed, most were asymptomatic (87.0%) and required no intervention. Key words:Hyperdontia, panoramic radiographs, Sub-Saharan Africa, supernumerary teeth.