Prevalence of Incidental Dental Anomalies seen on Pre-Treatment Digital Panoramic Radiographs of a Group of Nigerian Orthodontic Patients: A Retrospective Study

Background: Radiographs are used by orthodontists in the diagnosis of malocclusion, treatment planning and monitoring. These usually reveal presence of dental anomalies that may require further assessment and management.  Objective: To investigate the prevalence, types and distribution of dental anomalies seen on the orthopantomograms (OPGs) of orthodontic patients at the University of Port-Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH). Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional radiographic study of a cohort of orthodontic patients who presented to the Department of Child Dental Health, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Rivers State, Nigeria. The data gathered from digital orthopantomograms of the patients was analysed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Statistics for Windows version 25.0. Results: The study comprised 249 patients with an age range of 5-44years (mean age of 14.6±7.7years) comprising 108 (43.4%) males and 141 (56.6%) females. Seventy (28.1%) [(29, 41.4% males), (41, 58.6% females)] of the patients had at least one dental anomaly. Dental anomalies were commonest (48, 68.6%) within 10-19 years age bracket followed by the 0-9 years age bracket (11, 15.7%). The most frequent dental anomaly was taurodontism (43, 61.4%), followed by congenitally missing teeth (8, 11.4%), supernumerary teeth (5, 7.1%), odontoma (4, 5.7%), peg shaped lateral incisors and transposition (2, 2.9%) respectively. Dental anomalies were more frequent in the maxilla (43, 61.4%).  Conclusion: The most common dental anomaly was taurodontism. Anomalies were more frequent in female than male patients and in the maxilla than in the mandible.