History

Congenital or non-congenital tooth absence results in dental asymmetries, alignment issues, and differences in arch length.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence of congenitally missing maxillary lateral incisors (LIs) and to find out its variability in relation to gender.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective study was carried out between January 2021 and December 2023. Orthopantomograph (OPGs) record of all orthodontic adolescent patients aged 12 to 18 years were taken from the archival records of the department. Orthopantomographs helped to diagnose the presence of unilateral/bilateral maxillary lateral incisors. The statistical analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 17.0). The frequencies were compared with the help of the Chi‑square test. P <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS: The frequency of missing upper laterals among the male patients was 1.00%, however, 2.8% of the female patients were having missing maxillary lateral incisors. Based on gender, 62.16% had a bilateral expression of missing upper laterals, 16.78% had left unilateral expression, and 21.62% had right unilateral expression.

CONCLUSION: The prevalence rate for congenitally missing upper lateral incisors in the orthodontic adolescent population aged 12 to 18 years was found to be 3.88% in the present study while females were found to have a greater percentage of agenesis of the upper lateral incisors (2.8%) as compared to the males (1.00%).