Prevalence and genetic basis of tooth agenesis

Tooth agenesis or hypodontia is one of the most common anomalies of the human dentition, characterized by the developmental absence of one or more teeth. Many studies have reported that the prevalence of congenital absence of permanent teeth varies from 3% to 11% among European and Asian populations. Recent advances in the fields of molecular biology and human genetics have improved our understanding of the cause of tooth agenesis. In this review, we assess the previous literature on prevalence of tooth agenesis comparing the Japanese with other racial populations, and describe the recent genetic studies associated with hypodontia in human and mouse models.