Out of a total of 21 exencephalic p53-deficient embryonic
and newborn mice, 6 (28.6%) possessed fused
maxillary incisor teeth. On histological analysis of the 5
examples seen on day 19.5 of gestation and
newborn mice, 3 varieties were observed: an example of ‘simple’
fusion, 3 examples of simple fusion each of
which contained a ‘dens in dente’ (‘tooth within a
tooth’), and a single example in which the fused teeth
were associated with a median supernumerary incisor tooth which, while
deeply indenting the labial surface
of the fused teeth, was in all locations a completely separate unit.
3-D reconstructions of the fused teeth
demonstrated that they were all of the fusio subtotalis variety.
No gross abnormalities were observed in the
other dentition in these mice. It is noted that in mice fused
maxillary incisor teeth are relatively commonly
associated with both hypervitaminosis A-induced and trypan
blue-induced exencephaly. It is believed that
the presence of dens in dente within fused maxillary incisor teeth
has only once been reported in mice, and
the association between fused maxillary incisor teeth and a
median supernumerary incisor tooth has not
previously been reported in this species.