Dens in Dente appears as

• A. Appears as a tooth within a tooth
• B. Appears as a fractured tooth
• C. Appears as enamel hypoplasia
• D. Appears as a missing tooth

Answer: (A)

Dens in dente is a developmental invagination of the enamel organ into the tooth, creating an enamel-lined fold that extends into the dentin and sometimes toward the pulp. On radiographs this produces the characteristic appearance of a tooth within a tooth, where the inner invagination resembles a secondary tooth or folded structure inside the primary crown. This pattern is most classically seen in maxillary lateral incisors and can make the tooth more susceptible to caries and pulpal infection because bacteria can travel into the invagination.

It’s not a fractured tooth—fractures show a break in continuity rather than a defined inward folding. It’s not enamel hypoplasia, which presents as generalized or patchy enamel thinning rather than a discrete inner tooth-like structure. And it’s not a missing tooth, which would simply show absence rather than an internal anomaly within the tooth.