Rare smile: Baby born with two front teeth

BRANSON, Mo. -- Alyssa Bella Bailey is only a week old but she's already making headlines with her smile.

The little girl from Branson, Missouri, was born with two lower front teeth.

The doctors and nurses who delivered her at Mercy Hospital Springfield on Dec. 28 couldn't believe their eyes.

"Right when she first arrived everyone was shocked," Alyssa's mother, Jaklina Bailey, told CBS affiliate KOLR-TV. "They said, 'she has two front teeth?' It was just the big talk in the delivery room."

Bailey says her doctor was just as shocked as everyone else.

"She said in her 25 year career this is the second time she's ever seen it," says Bailey. "We had two other doctors that came in just to look, and nurses, they were just like, 'let me see, let me see.'"

It's an uncommon occurrence known as "natal teeth." According to Medline Plus, part of the U.S. National Library of Medicine, natal teeth occur once in every 2,000 to 3,000 births.

Natal teeth can be associated with medical conditions like growth hormone deficiencies or cleft palates, but most of the time, babies like Alyssa Bella are perfectly healthy.

"They said it's just going to grow with the rest of her teeth," says Bailey.

"The doctor did warn us, we're going to keep an eye on them if they do come loose [because] she could choke on them."

Medline Plus says natal teeth sometimes irritate a child's tongue or cause pain during breast-feeding.

"I know a whole lot of people have asked me, 'does it hurt?''' says Bailey, "Well I'm breast feeding with a bottle."

While many natal teeth are taken out because of their loose root structure, Bailey says the amazing smile is here to stay, at least until it's time for the teeth to fall out on their own.

"Everything about her is healthy, she's a healthy beautiful little girl," says the proud mom. "She just has two front teeth."