Dental development in amelogenesis imperfecta: a controlled study

The present investigation studied dental development in 23 subjects with amelogenesis imperfecta (AI), aged 4.2 to 15.6 years, compared with 46 race-, age-, and sex-matched, healthy, normal controls. The dental ages of the children were assessed from panoramic radiographs using previously established methods. Their chronologic ages at the time of radiographic examination were compared with their dental ages. The results showed that all subjects with AI showed a significant acceleration of dental age of approximately 1.13 +/- 0.78 years compared with control children (P < 0.001). All children were consistently affected regardless of the AI variant. Furthermore, the study found a six-fold increase (26.1 vs. 4.3%) in tendency of AI patients to show impaction of the permanent teeth and associated anomalies such as follicular cysts. These results may be important in planning orthodontic treatment in AI patients, and indicate that they should have early screening to detect these abnormalities.