Dental Development in Children Following Maternal Rubella

Abstract

Summary In a country‐wide prospective study of children aged one to three years with histories of maternal rubella born 1951‐52 it was found that 550 children of women with rubella in the first four months of pregnancy had an average of 0.6 teeth less than 429 children with maternal rubella in the fifth and following months and 639 matched controls. The difference was more marked in the children aged approx. 15 months and independent of birth weight, height at birth and size of head circumference at examination. No significant differences were stated in 88 children, belonging to the above‐mentioned series and examined at nearly 5 years of age, regarding the eruption of the first deciduous tooth, incidence of caries, malocclusion, and the gingival. Hypoplasia of enamel or aplasia of teeth wag not found, neither among the rubella children nor the controls.