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Origin of the Deciduous Upper Lateral Incisor and its Clinical Aspects

¹ Department of Teratology, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Videnska 1083, 142 20 Prague 4, Czech Republic;
² Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Vinicna 7, 128 00 Prague 2, Czech Republic;
³ INSERM U595, 11 rue Humann, 67085 Strasbourg Cedex, France;
⁴ Université Louis Pasteur, Faculté de Chirurgie Dentaire, 67085 Strasbourg, France; and
⁵ Clinic of Plastic Surgery, Faculty Hospital Kralovske Vinohrady, Srobarova 50, 100 34 Prague 10, Czech Republic

^* corresponding author, marhor{at}biomed.cas.cz

The upper lateral incisor in humans is often affected by dental anomalies that might be explained developmentally. To address this question, we investigated the origin of the deciduous upper lateral incisor (i²) in normal human embryos at prenatal weeks 6–8. We used serial frontal histological sections and computer-aided 3D reconstructions. At embryonic days 40-42, two thickenings of the dental epithelia in an "end-to-end" orientation were separated by a groove at the former fusion site of the medial nasal and maxillary processes. Later, these dental epithelia fused, forming a continuous dental lamina. At the fusion site, i² started to develop. The fusion line was detectable on the i² germ until the 8th prenatal week. The composite origin of the i² may be associated with its developmental vulnerability. From a clinical aspect, a supernumerary i² might be a form of cleft caused by a non-fusion of the dental epithelia.

KEY WORDS: lateral incisor • dental epithelium • human tooth development • orofacial cleft • dental anomalies