Prevalence of natal/neonatal teeth in cleft lip and palate infants

In the daily routine of the Hospital for Research and Rehabilitation of Cleft Lip and Palate, a high frequency of natal/neonatal teeth was observed. Therefore, this retrospective study was conducted to determine the prevalence of this anomaly in 692 patients with complete unilateral and 327 bilateral cleft lip and palate, who were less than 3 months old, without prior surgery, and registered at the Hospital from 1989 to 1994. A higher prevalence of such teeth was found in the complete bilateral cleft group (10.6%), than in the complete unilateral cleft group (2.02%). Both, however, were higher than that reported for noncleft groups. There were also different characteristics in the appearance of these teeth in cleft patients from those previously related in the literature for normal patients. The conclusion was that these differences constitute another particularity of the cleft lip and palate patient.