Several genes affect tooth development in the first year of life, according to the findings of a study conducted at Imperial College London, the University of Bristol in the U.K., and the University of Oulu in Finland.
The research, published February 26 in PLoS Genetics, shows that the teeth of babies with certain genetic variants tend to appear later and these children have a lower number of teeth by age 1 year. Additionally, those children whose teeth develop later are more likely to need orthodontic treatment.
Marjo-Riitta Jarvelin of the School of Public Health at Imperial College London and colleagues scanned the entire genetic code of 6,000 individuals from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort and the Avon Longitudinal Study on Parents and Children, both of which track participants from mother's early pregnancy until adulthood. The researchers identified five genes associated with both the first tooth eruption and the number of teeth at age 1 year. They also found that one of the identified genes was associated with a 35% increased risk of requiring orthodontic treatment by the age of 30 years.
The authors emphasized that tooth development is not an isolated event. Teeth and several other organs have common growth and developmental pathways in early life. Some of the genes identified have been linked in previous studies with the development of the skull, jaws, ears, fingers, toes, and heart.
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