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A longitudinal study of the relationship between childhood BMI and timing of dental development

Introduction: Prevalence of childhood obesity is at an all-time high. The effect of childhood obesity on dental development and eruption is a widespread topic today in the dental field. Several cross-sectional studies over the past decade have found an association between advanced dental development and eruption and childhood obesity. The purpose of this study is to examine the longitudinal relationship between childhood Body Mass Index (BMI), and the development of the permanent dentition. Methods: 76 subjects from a longitudinal dataset (Iowa Facial Growth Study 1946-1960) were selected to examine the relationship between BMI and dental development during childhood. Periapical and lateral cephalometric radiographs were used to provide a dental maturity score for each subject using the Demirjian et al. (1973) method at three separate time points (age 4, 8, and 12). BMI was calculated using subjects’ height and weight at each time point. Results: Children with higher BMI’s at all three time points (4, 8 and 12) tended to have advanced dental development compared to children who were of normal weight status. Children who were considered underweight (< 5th BMI percentile) were more likely to be dentally delayed. BMI at age 4 was predictive of dental development status at age 8 and 12. Conclusion: Our results add to the growing body of evidence that childhood obesity is associated with advanced dental development. This is important in the dental and orthodontic fields, as early eruption has been hypothesized to be associated with increased dental caries, crowding, and malocclusions.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:uiowa.edu/oai:ir.uiowa.edu:etd-7009
Date01 May 2017
CreatorsKadavy, Kevan Daniel
ContributorsHolton, Nathan E.
PublisherUniversity of Iowa
Source SetsUniversity of Iowa
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typethesis
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceTheses and Dissertations
RightsCopyright © 2017 Kevan Daniel Kadavy

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