Keith Mintz heard the doctor and nurses chuckling while they cleaned up his newborn son.
Then the doctor called him over.
“He said, ‘Come here, I want to show you something,'” Keith Mintz, 37, recalled. “He said, ‘He’s got teeth.'”
Mintz was puzzled at first – how could this baby that doesn’t even have hair yet have teeth, Mintz said he wondered. But sure enough doctors pointed them out.
The proud papa then relayed the news to his family waiting outside the delivery room.
“I said, ‘He’s healthy, he’s here, he’s got teeth,'” Mintz said.
The Mintzes said they were just as surprised as the doctors to learn that Matthew had teeth. No one else in their family was born with teeth that they know of. The condition is called natal teeth and happens once in every 2,000 to 3,000 births, according to the online medical encyclopedia Medline Plus.
“I was OK with it because my baby was healthy. I think it was more of a surprise when I saw them.” Melissa Mintz, 32, said. “My reaction was, ‘If this is the worst I have to worry about, then I’m a lucky mom.'”
Baby Matthew has eight teeth and four “buds.”
His mother said she has two main worries: that a tooth will come loose, he’ll swallow it and it’ll go into his lungs or that he’ll lose his teeth and won’t have new ones until his permanent teeth start coming in.
“We’re basically just trying to find out the best information that we can to make the best decisions,” Melissa Mintz said.
Pediatric dentist Dr. Beth Cook said she’s seen a dozen cases of natal teeth since she finished her residency in 2005. Cook works at the Pediatric Dentistry of South Charlotte.
Natal teeth don’t have the same quality as baby teeth because they’ve come through before being fully developed, Cook said.
Two big concerns are the baby choking on the teeth and having a higher risk of decay, Cook said.
“To be born with eight is certainly unusual,” Cook said.
To keep natal teeth clean Cook advises parents that they can brush them or wipe them down with gauze and a washcloth after feeding.
“They absolutely have to be kept clean,” Cook said.
Breastfeeding can be awkward for obvious reasons, Cook said. Melissa Mintz said she was breastfeeding.
