[Treatment of Riga-Fede's disease by resin-coverage of the incisal edges and seven cases of natal and neonatal teeth].

This report concerned 2 cases (1-month and 8-day-old boy and 5-month and 27-day-old boy) of Riga-Fede's disease. The cases were treated with photopolymerized resin coverage of the incisal edges. Generally, the treatment methods for Riga-Fede's disease are discing and extraction of the traumatized teeth. The photopolymerized resin coverage proved to help in the rapid healing of the ulcerations. This method is useful because it is easy and is able to avoid a false pulp exposure of the hypoplastic natal and neonatal teeth by discing. 7 cases of natal and neonatal teeth were encountered at the Pedodontic Clinic of Niigata University Dental Hospital during 8 years from September 1979 to August 1987. 1) 7 cases were 3 boys and 4 girls, aging from 21 days after birth to 3 months 19 days. 2) Only one baby had a low birth weight. 3) The natal teeth accounted for 6 cases and the neonatal teeth accounted for 1 case. All were lower central primary incisors (5 on the right side, 1 on the left side and 1 bilateral). There were no supernumerary teeth. 4) 5 cases were of hypoplastic teeth. 5) Riga-Fede's disease was recognized in 3 cases. 6) The prognosis was 1 case of shedding, 2 cases extracted and 4 cases remaining. 7) Mesial inclination of the neighboring teeth and narrowness of the extracted space wee observed in the cases where extraction was performed at an early age. 8) Microradiogram and undemineralized specimens of the extracted tooth revealed that the tooth was very thin and mineralization was so poor and there was almost no root formation.