Some information before we start: I know some people are sensitive about real photos of mutations, I wrote a small description (in brackets) ahead of every spoiler that contains pictures so you know what to expect.

What is Hyperdontia?

Hyperdontia is basically the opposite of the toothless mutation (which is Anodontia) we already have - too many teeth.

It usually happens when in a very young age more than average tooth germs are developing. The exact cause is unknown, but it can appear with different conditions like:

• Gardner’s syndrome
• Cleft palate and lip
• Cleidocranial dysplasia
• and more, but this is about teeth, not other genetic disorders and syndromes

However, mostly they are just 'surprise' teeth, where the patient has none of the listed conditions above or the tooth germ got irritated in a very young age (from a punch in the face as example) and split in 2.

As far as I know it can appear in domestic cats, dogs and humans. I've treated a human patient with 5 wisdom teeth myself.

In humans, there has been reported a case where over 200 teeth like structures have been surgically removed from the jaw, but these are extremely rare cases. If someone has hyperdontia, it's mostly one or a few more teeth.

The teeth are usually removed or in rare cases they can be treated orthodontical, but this is a game about wild lions and not humans.


Lethal, AMP or visible from birth?

The toothless mutation is visible from birth, so the lions have neither baby teeth or permanent teeth.

The eruption of the permanent teeth of a lion is usually completed by two years of age, thus I would suggest this as an Adult Mutation, where the baby lion has the normal dentition as any other young lion but as they loose their baby teeth and reach 2 years, the adult mutation is revealed as Hyperdontia.

Depending the amount of the surplus teeth, the lion might not be able to 'clean' their teeth via chewing on meat. This can cause calculus/tartar on the teeth and an inflamation of the periodontium, where bacteria can entering the bloodstream which can lead to death if untreated.

But if this mutation becomes a lethal on lioden, it's unrealistic that toothless lions can live a long and happy life.


Art change?

No art change would be needed for the default female and male lion art, but for the posed females there would be an art change needed for the evil and snarky pose.

Toothless lions aren't posable because of this. But since the art change would only affect the lineart and not any markings, I think it wouldn't be too much to desire a posable Hyperdontia mutation (and maybe a posable toothless mutation too )

In the Spoiler below are mockups I've made for the evil and Snarky pose. The image in the lower right side shows the normal dentition our lions have.

(Lioden graphics. They are far less gorey than some other pictures in this suggestion and look rather harmless)

Gameplay change?

Toothless lions can't hunt/patrol/get kinged for obvious reasons.
Some people may think now: more teeth = more dangerous = more damage/strengh.
But usually the jaw only has enough size to hold the normal amount of teeth. If a lion has multiple teeth it's most likely they grow in a direction they're not supposed to be and the lion would struggle to use them the right way.
In very bad cases they even might die, because of reasons listed above in 'Lethal, AMP or visible from birth?'

If there should be any gameplay change at all, it should be a disadvantage for this mutation.
Depending on how many multiple teeth are present, there should be either no gameplay change at all, a stat debuff or the lion brings less food from hunting home/gets less stats or items from patrolling. Maybe the mood lowers when feeding the lion, because they are just frustrated that they can't eat like their other pridemembers?
However, this mutations should be able get kinged.

Personally I tend to no gameplay change at all.


Hyperdontia in cats


There are many pictures of supposed hyperdontia out there in the internet, but many of them are photoshopped or just show permanent teeth with baby teeth who just haven't fallen out yet.
As an example of false hyperdontia (a persistent tooth) a picture of my cat, while he was loosing his baby teeth

(closeup of the of a cats mouth, showing a baby tooth and an errupting permanent tooth)

Real Hyperdontia looks very similar and can appear in both, baby teeth and permanent teeth. But a baby tooth, that is still visible when the permanent teeth are errupting is not hyperdontia.

I was able to find a few cases, where domestic cats had hyperdontia, the first cat had a symmetrical occurance of the third premolar tooth. According to the website, the patient was also grinding their teeth, which might be a sign of dental/oral pain.

Photographs in the spoiler are from said cat
(closeups of the inside of a cats mouth, no blood)

Below are some more pictures of other cats who have hyperdontia

(closeups of the inside of a cats mouth with saliva. You can see a little bit blood if you squint your eyes)

So far I've only been able to find cases where the cat had too much premolars, but if this can happen to a cats premolars, it can happen to any other kind of tooth too.



In the spoiler I've embedded some pictures of extreme hyperdontia cases of humans and a dog.
(Closeups and x-rays of the inside of a dogs and humans mouth. Careful, these images may trigger trypophobia for some people! No blood,but lots of teeth!)