Premature babies have smaller teeth

The size of teeth in premature children is smaller than those born full term, according to new study.

 

The study comes from the Faculty of Odontology at Malmo University in Sweden in which Liselotte Paulsson-Björnsson, a specialist in orthodontics, studied 80 children born before week 33 of pregnancy.

 

She said: ‘We have examined how their teeth are developing and, among other things, we’ve looked at their bites. We’ve also checked their need for orthodontic adjustments and found that it is greater than in the control group, children born at full term.’

The children participating in the various studies were born in the mid-1990s and were examined when they developed their first permanent teeth at the age of eight to ten.

 

The results show that the teeth of premature children were up to 10% smaller compared with the control group � the earlier the children were born, the smaller their teeth were.

She added: ‘When we examined the children we also saw that their teeth were farther apart,’ but stressed that having small teeth as such is not a serious problem, although it can be aesthetically problematic having large gaps between your teeth.

‘But these problems can be addressed. We can move teeth if the gaps between them are too large, and there is also good material to extend teeth if they’re too small.’

Disturbances in the teeth’s mineralisation phase can also lead to spots on the front teeth, but this is also a problem that can be dealt with using cosmetic dental treatments.

Liselotte Paulsson-Björnsson is now planning new studies to follow these children into their teens.

 

Among other things, she will be studying whether all permanent teeth are affected in terms of size, or only the ones that are formed in connection with birth.

 

She also wants to study the children’s quality of life in relation to their dental status.

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