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Expert Q&A
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| By John Dorsey, M.D. Pediatrician | ||
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I have a set of twins who were born with natal teeth. Is this any indication of whether they are identical or not? Do you know of any other twins who were both born with teeth?
Being born with natal teeth is very uncommon, maybe one in 3,000 or so. To have twins born, both with natal teeth, is even more uncommon. I have never seen a set of twins both born with natal teeth. It proves your twins are special.
However, sharing this trait doesn't really confirm or deny their being identical or fraternal twins. For that, you'd have to look back to birth and determine from the placenta whether they came from separate embryo sacs or from the same.
In any case twins, identical or not, will carry many of the same gene expressions. But even with identical twins, they will not share them all. These mini-changes are enough to prevent any two people from sharing the same fingerprints or the same exact DNA sequences.
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