TWIN girls in India have both been born with full-formed front teeth – shocking doctors and their mother.
Surprisingly, the non-identical babies born at 32 weeks and had to be kept in an incubator for the first 15 days have been breastfeeding with no trouble since birth, say doctors describing their case in the British Medical Journal (BMJ)
However, the tots were initially transferred to see a paediatric dentist after their family became concerned about their well-developed teeth.
When dentists examined their mouths, they saw that the girls both had fully-formed bottom front two teeth – which were slightly yellowed and hard.
Doctors describing the case said: “Presence or eruption of teeth immediately at or after birth is a rarely reported phenomenon.
“The chance of a baby being born with teeth – or them erupting in the first month after birth – is between one in 2,000 and 1 in 3,500,”they added.
However, teeth that do erupt at these stages are usually wobbly owing to their lack of root structure and are often removed to lessen the danger of the child choking on them.
These types of teeth can also injure the baby’s tongue when it is breastfeeding, as well as potentially hurt the mother.
However, the girls’ mother told doctors that she felt “neither pain nor irritation while feeding” and that neither of the babies were found to have evidence of cuts or injuries due to the teeth.
Doctors from a hospital said: “It was decided to retain the natal teeth since they would not pose problems.
“If the teeth are not interfering with the child’s intake of nutrients, and not causing any problems to the baby or mother, they should be left”, they added.
The parents were told to be wary of the risk of choking as well as the possibility of abscess’ forming, and were sent home.
Doctors caught-up with the parents at a later date and it was reported that the babies were still feeding well and had gained weight.
Culled from thesun.co.uk