Association of taurodontism with hypodontia: a controlled study.

Although taurodontism has been reported in many syndromes which also feature hypodontia, there have been no previous investigations on the prevalence of taurodontism in patients with hypodontia. Using a novel biometric method for the assessment of taurodontism, we found that 34.8% of 66 patients with hypodontia had at least one mandibular first permanent molar which showed taurodontism compared to only 7.5% of a control group without hypodontia. The trait may be seen both unilaterally and bilaterally and is most frequently seen in patients with multiple missing teeth. The results indicate that clinicians should be alerted to the possibility of taurodontism with its accompanying clinical difficulties in patients with hypodontia.