Osteogenesis imperfecta type I with unusual dental abnormalities

Abstract

A large kindred with dominantly inherited osteogenesis imperfecta was evaluated. Affected individuals had bone fractures, blue sclerae, and hearing loss. In addition, all had dental abnormalities distinct from those previously described in other families with this syndrome. Deciduous teeth were normal in color or blue-grey. On radiographs of an early developing deciduous dentition, pulps were larger than normal. In patients with mixed dentitions, pulp chambers of deciduous teeth were partially obliterated. Increased constriction at the junctions of the crowns and roots was found in some deciduous teeth. One patient had large pulp stones in the pulp chambers of all maxillary deciduous molars. Permanent teeth were normal in color but had oval pulp chambers with apical extensions into the coronal portions of the roots, large coronal pulp stones, narrow root canals, and thin roots. Individuals in this family who did not have osteogenesis imperfecta had normal teeth. In addition, a well circumscribed radiolucency without a sclerotic periphery, involving the apices of all permanent mandibular incisors, was found in the anterior mandible in one patient. These findings support the hypothesis that this family has yet another type I osteogenesis imperfecta "syndrome".