ERUPTION DISTURBANCES OF TEETH IN KOREAN CHILDREN

Eruption disturbance is an abnormal state of eruption that occurs over a broad chronologic age range. There are many factors that influence eruption such as premature loss of primary teeth, supernumerary tooth, local disease, tongue, lip, mastication muscle and trauma. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence, patterns and tooth position that have eruption disturbance in children in Seoul, Korea. The subjects were 8,010 new patients who visited the department of Pediatric dentistry of Seoul National University Dental Hospital in 2004-2005. Clinical and radiographic records of the patients were reviewed by the primary investigator who is a pediatric dentist. Notable eruption disturbances included delayed eruption, early eruption and ectopic eruption and the prevalence of eruption disturbance was 8.79%.