Baby born with teeth

3:05pm Thursday 12th July 2007

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Baby Megan Andrews amazed doctors and family - by being born with teeth.

She is now just under two weeks old and she has already had two dental appointments.

Mum Claire Slimming, 20, knew nothing of the phenomenon until a midwife gave Megan a check an hour after she came into the world (June 29).

Claire said: "The midwife counted Megan's ten fingers and toes and then looked and put a finger inside her mouth and was astonished when she counted seven teeth.

"Her face said it all - she was shocked."

Megan had her first dental appointment at the age of just one day at the Maxio-facial unit at Worthing Hospital, the same hospital where she was born.

Claire said: "They gently took out four of the teeth because they were falling out and might have choked her. She didn't feel a thing and slept through the whole process.

"Megan still has one tiny tooth in front and two at the back and they are pretty-well anchored in. They said they would have to give her anaesthetic to remove them but we decided against that. I couldn't put her through it.

"We'll be keeping an eye on them with more dental check-ups."

Claire and her partner Glenn Andrews, who live in Worthing, are over the moon with their first child.

Glenn, a 29-year-old building technician, said: "I was quite shocked when I heard about the teeth but I don't think it was such a surprise for Claire - she was also born with teeth."

Claire said: "I had 12 and I was six days old when I had them all taken out.

"I've checked through the whole family but there's no one else who had natal teeth - it seems to have started with me for some reason."

Claire is missing some of her second teeth and is waiting for implants. She is hoping Megan doesn't have the same trouble.

Meanwhile, Claire is enjoying life with her extra-special baby. She said: "I'm told the odds of a baby being born with teeth is one in 2,000."

She attends a local dental surgery where Dr Martin Bean said: "It's hard to say how often it occurs but it is unusual."

Studies carried out by dental journals in the late Nineties showed the incidence was as rare as one in 6,000 but most of the babies normally had only two or three teeth.

One Brazilian study in 1998 showed natal teeth were more common among girls. Experts are still baffled as to what causes the anomaly but they say hereditary or family patterns do play a part.

Megan's teeth don't bother her parents. Claire, who is bottle-feeding her baby, said: "She's perfect in every way."