Baby born with teeth

LONDON - It is a milestone that many babies take a year to reach. Yet when Faye Armstrong was born, she already had her two front teeth - astonishing her parents and midwives.

Now, a fortnight on, two molars are beginning to appear. Her mother Patricia Caulfield, 25, told of her amazement at her daughter’s dental development.

“When she was born, I noticed two white slits on her bottom gum. The next morning, when I was feeding her, I felt a sharp pain and saw they had come through fully,” the Daily Mail quoted Caulfield as saying.

A baby’s teeth begin to develop before they are born. However, they don’t usually come through until they are aged between six months and one year.

One in 2,000 babies is born with a tooth or two like Faye. The first to come through are usually the incisors - which are the four front teeth at the top and bottom of the jaw used for cutting and chopping food.

Most children have a full set of 20 milk teeth by the time they’re three years old. These teeth will start to fall out around the five years, making way for larger adult teeth.

“My midwife told me this is really rare. Children are sometimes born with buds but hardly ever full teeth,” Caulfield said.

Faye was born three weeks early at Ormskirk Hospital in Lancashire, Britain.