Alyssa Bailey was born with two healthy front teeth already showing on her bottom lip. This rare event took place on Dec. 28, 2014, in Missouri.
Natal teeth are found in newborn babies about once every 2,000 or 3,000 births. Doctors often remove the teeth in these cases, so they do not present a choking hazard to the infant.
Although rare, this event is not extraordinary. However, the unusual feature in the newborn created a stir in the delivery room and beyond.
"Right when she first arrived everybody was just shocked. Just like, 'she has two front teeth? No kidding? Really?' It was just a big talk about it, you know, in the delivery room," Jaklina Bailey, Alyssa's mother, said.
Soon after delivery, doctors and nurses from other areas of the hospital were coming into the maternity ward to see the newborn girl with her two front teeth. The doctor caring for the mother told the new parent this was only the second time in 25 years she had ever witnessed a baby born with teeth.
"It's her bottom two teeth. We had two other doctors that came in just to look, and nurses. They were kind of like 'what's going on? Can I just see? Let me see,'" Jaklina Bailey said.
Natal teeth are more often found on the bottom gum than the top, and a few babies are even born with more than two teeth.
Natal teeth can be associated with health conditions, such as cleft palates and growth hormone deficiencies, but this does not seem to be the case with little Alyssa.
Other problems with natal teeth include sores under the tongues of infants, and pain for the mother while breastfeeding. The new mother reports she is feeding the infant her own breast milk, from a bottle.
"Natal teeth most often develop on the lower gum, where the central incisor teeth will appear. They have little root structure. They are attached to the end of the gum by soft tissue and are often wobbly," the National Institutes of Health reported on their website.
Physicians for the family are recommending the teeth stay in the infant, but have advised the mother to pay attention that they do not become loose, presenting a potential choking hazard to the infant.
Most babies start teething at around six months of age, and by the time they are three years of age, most children have a full set of 20 milk teeth. Starting around age five, this first set of teeth begging to fall out, replaced by an adult set of pearly whites. Doctors believe that as the baby enters the teething stage, teeth will grow naturally around the two that are already showing.
