New born Blackpool baby set for first dental check-up after being born with one fully grown tooth

Bethany Green’s daughter Avery was born a healthy 6lb 7oz on January 16 following an uneventful pregnancy and a short four-hour labour.

But nurses at Blackpool Victoria Hospital quickly noticed something very unusual about her.

An almost fully-grown milk tooth growing from her lower gums.

Bethany, 18, of Onslow Road, Layton, said: “I didn’t actually realise I was pregnant until I was six or seven months on, so it was very quick. It was just when I started showing.

“She was born with (the tooth) coming out a little bit, and now she’s four weens it’s properly out. It’s massive.

“I heart that you can get some babies with it.

“A midwife when she came out said’she looks like she’s got a tooth’, but she didn’t say anything else about it.”

Now four weeks old, Avery has just become the youngest patient at Genix Healthcare Dental Clinic on Newton Drive, Blackpool. She is due to have her first check-up next week.

Bethany, who is now juggling motherhood with studying a foundation course in early years learning at Blackpool and the Fylde College and a waitress job at The Village Hotel, said: “My health visitor told me to get some advice from a dentist and they booked her in for an appointment.

“I went in and they hadn’t seen it before, but had heard of it.

“They wanted me to come into an appointment where a student dentist is there as well so they can learn about it.”

Most babies get their first tooth between four and seven months of age.

However, a small number of babies are born with one or more teeth, called ‘natal teeth’.

It is estimated that just one in every 1,000 babies is born with natal teeth.

Professor Richard Welbury, honorary consultant in paediatric dentistry at UCLAN, said: “In paediatric dentistry, it’s quite common for us to get calls from neo-natal units to say there’s a child born with a tooth, but it may not be something that a general dental practice would see very often.

“There may be more than one; I have never seen more than two at a time. They are usually part of the normal quota of baby teeth, but in rare cases they may be extra teeth.

“We do all we can to keep them and help them to mature as normal milk teeth.

“There are three reasons why we would take them out. the first is that they would be a danger to the baby’s airway. They may be very loose and there would be a danger that they could come loose and go into the baby’s lungs.

“The second reason is they could ulcerate the underside of the baby’s tongue, and the third reason would be if the mother is breast-feeding and that’s painful.”

Luckily for Bethany, she decided to bottle-feed her baby.

She said: “I planned on bottle-feeding from the start.

“She‘s a quiet baby. She only really cries when she’s hungry. She sleeps most of the day

“I’ve been doing work from home and only going in this week.

“This week my mum and dad have been looking after her so me so I can actually do my essays!

“They love her. They’re very proud.

“Everyone comments on it because they’ve never seen it before. Everyone at work has been taking pictures of her.”