Hypodontia of permanent teeth in Danish schoolchildren

Hypodontia, congenitally missing teeth, is one of the conditions recorded during systematic orthodontic screening of groups of children attending a community child dental health service. The present investigation reports the prevalence of hypodontia in 3325 9–10-year-old children in the 3rd schoolgrade examined with an orthopantornographic radiograph. The prevalence of children with hypodontia was found to be 7.8%. Fifty percent of these children were missing only one tooth while 85% were missing either one or two teeth. More teeth were missing in the mandible than in the maxilla. The teeth most frequently missing were the second premolars, representing 67% of the congenitally missing teeth. Symmetrical hypodontia of second premolars occurred approximately twice as often in girls as in boys. Though more teeth were congenitally missing in girls than in boys, no difference could be seen in the prevalence of hypodontia in boys (7.7%) and girls (7.8%).