Studies of a family manifesting premature exfoliation of deciduous teeth.

We report observations made on a family in which the children manifested premature exfoliation of the deciduous incisors and canines beginning as early as 1.5 years of age. We observed gingival recession, alveolar bone resorption, tooth loosening and exfoliation without apical root resorption in the absence of clinical signs of inflammation. The children's mother, age 26, had a normal periodontium, but the father, age 30, had periodontitis of moderate severity. Exfoliated deciduous teeth from one of the children were examined histologically and features characteristic for hypophosphatasia were seen. However, localized prepubertal periodontitis could not be ruled out from these data alone. The differential diagnoses for this type of condition are discussed.