Dr. Osarugue Ota, a paediatric dentist, claims that newborns born with teeth or who develop teeth within 30 days of birth are natural and have nothing to do with witchcraft.
Ota, who works at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, told journalists on Tuesday during an online training session that such newborns were perfectly normal.
According to her, natal teeth appear when a baby is born, whereas neonatal teeth appear within the first 30 days of life.
According to Ota, such teeth should have emerged about six months after birth but did so sooner for unknown reasons.
“This situation is not common; that is why it could be scary for most parents.
“The society also frowns at it, and some say the parents brought the child from the witchcraft kingdom.
“Our role as paediatric dentists will be to counsel the mother and even the entire family of such a baby about these kinds of teeth and the treatment options, and to tell them that the situations have nothing to do with witchcraft.
“We would check if the teeth are shaky; this means they are not well-formed and could actually be a risk to the child as they could cause injury to the infant’s tongue when nursing,’’ she said.
The dentist also said that the baby would also risk inhaling the teeth which could be stuck in his airway, causing problems.
“To avoid such, we do a proper assessment and inform the parents that we will take out these teeth,” she said.
Ota said that if the natal teeth were firm and well-formed, the parents of the child would be told that such a child was normal.
“However, if the parents insist that the teeth should be taken off due to socio-cultural perceptions, then they have to sign a consent form for an expert to go ahead and remove the teeth,” she said. (NAN)