Hypodontia in hemifacial microsomia

Objective: The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to describe the patte rns of missing teeth in patients with hemifacial microsomia (HFM) and (2) t o compare the prevalence of missing teeth in subjects with HFM with a group of unaffected subjects. Study Design: A descriptive study was conducted comparing HFM subjects with a group of patients selected from an orthodontic clinic. Methods: The prevalence of missing teeth was assessed by evaluation of pano ramic radiographs. At the time of the study, records of 125 patients with H FM were available from the Craniofacial Center at Boston's Children's Hospi tal. Seventy-six met inclusion criteria for radiographic analysis of hypodo ntia, Fifty-two patients met inclusion criteria into the comparison study i n which the prevalence of hypodontia was compared with a group of patients from the Department of Orthodontics at Harvard School of Dental Medicine, A Fisher's exact test was conducted to test the hypothesis that HFM patients have a greater prevalence of missing teeth than individuals without the an omaly, A chi-square test for trend was conducted to determine whether hypod ontia was more prevalent with increasing severity of the mandibular deformi ty in HFM, Results: Hypodontia was more common among HFM patients (26.9%) versus the c omparison group in which no missing teeth were recorded (p < .0001), Additi onally, the degree of hypodontia was correlated with the grade of mandibula r hypoplasia (p = .024), Conclusion: Hypodontia was found to be more prevalent in patients with HFM than in comparison subjects, possibly indicating an etiologic link between the two conditions.