A double tooth is more cavity-prone than other teeth, due to its unusual shape. In some cases, a double baby tooth is associated with a missing adult tooth. Double teeth appear more frequently in children than adults. The front teeth are most likely to be affected by this problem. Double teeth run in families, and follow a hereditary pattern - usually autosomal dominant or autosomal recessive.
Double teeth are the result of disturbances during embryological tooth formation.
Since it is not possible to know what caused the embryonic disturbance, it is not appropriate to use terms such as gemination and fusion when talking about a diagnosis. One of the embryological causes of double teeth is gemination. Gemination is an attempted division of a tooth germ, resulting in a tooth with a bifid crown and a single root. The error occurs at the proliferative stage of tooth development. Fusion occurs when two or more tooth germs form a single tooth.