Children born prematurely have smaller teeth.
This information has been established by the Faculty of Odontology at Malmo University in Sweden. The researchers analyzed 80 children born prior to 33 weeks of pregnancy to compile the data.
The children in the study were born in the 1990s and their examinations started when their first permanent teeth were present at about age 8 to 10.
The information demonstrated that children born prematurely had teeth that were roughly 10 percent smaller compared to the control group of the study. The sooner the children were born during the pregnancy, the smaller their teeth were. The teeth of these children were also further apart.
The small teeth and gaps between the teeth aren’t a major problem in today’s dental world. Though they may not be aesthetically pleasing, there is plenty of cosmetic dental treatment available that can fix the problems.
The leader of the study, Liselotte Paulsson-Bjornsson, plans to conduct more studies on these children born prematurely. She will closely look to see if permanent teeth are affected or if solely baby teeth are affected by premature birth. She also wants to look at their overall dental health.
This study will be useful for dentists today, however, there have been many advances in the medical world since these children were born in the mid 1990s. Therefore, presently there may more data or more advanced procedures involved with aiding the dental health of children born prematurely.
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