Timing of Permanent Tooth Emergence is Associated with Overweight/Obesity in Children from the Amazon Region

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between timing of permanent tooth emergence with overweight and obesity in children from Brazilian Amazon region. The studied population consisted of 192 children, 09 to 12 year-old, from public schools at Manaus, Amazonas-Brazil. Clinical examination was performed and the tooth emergence was evaluated according to the number of permanent erupted teeth. Body mass index z-score was calculated. For the statistical analysis 'Overweight/obese' group was compared with 'Normal weight' group in a case to control ratio 1:2. The t-test based on age was used for means comparison between the groups. A linear regression analysis using age and gender as co-variants was used. The established alpha was 5%. One hundred twenty-seven children were classified as normal weight and 65 were classified as overweight/obese (49 were overweight and 16 were obese). Overweight/ obesity condition was associated with the gender, in which boys had a higher chance to present higher weight conditions (OR=1.84; CI 95% 1.06-3.37; p=0.04). The mean number of permanent teeth was higher in the overweight/obesity group (p<0.001). Linear regression analysis demonstrated that nutritional status, gender and age were strongly associated with number of permanent erupted teeth (p<0.05). In conclusion, our study demonstrated that timing of permanent tooth emergence is associated with overweigh/obesity in children from Manaus, Brazil.

Nutritional Status is Associated with Permanent Tooth Eruption in a Group of Brazilian School Children

“…The impact on permanent tooth eruption for children in the extremes of the spectrum of BMI z-scores was noticed by different studies in many populations. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] In our study, the logistic regression adjusted by gender and age demonstrate that underweight children had more than 4 times higher chance to present DTE. Underweight and malnourishment were already associated with permanent DTE in children from Cambodia, 10 in Filipino teenagers 21 and was also associated with delayed tooth formation in children and teenagers from South Africa.…”

“… 14 The current evidence supports that the disturbance in tooth eruption is directly related to the child’s growth, development and nutritional status and should be considered in pediatric patients during dental treatment. 10 - 25 Although the association between permanent tooth eruption (or delayed exfoliation of the primary tooth) was previously investigated in other Brazilian populations, 19 , 20 we also decided to explore the impact of the nutritional status on tooth eruption time in School children from Alfenas, which is a medium size city located in Minas Gerais state. It is important to emphasize that Brazil is a country with a continental size with a different ethnic composition ranging according to the state, 2 as well as socioeconomic and cultural differences.…”

“…The association between overweight/obesity with tooth eruption was also previously performed in Brazilian children. Evangelista et al 20 observed that permanent tooth emergence is associated with overweight and obesity in children from the Brazilian Amazon area. Arid et al 19 also observed similar results in children from São Paulo state, however, in our study, only a borderline result was observed in boys.…”

“…Many factors could affect primary and permanent tooth eruption. Some studies suggested that low birth weight and prematurity, 1 - 4 endocrinology conditions, 5 - 7 ethnicity, 8 socioeconomic aspects, 9 and nutritional status, such as malnourishment (underweight), and obesity, 7 , 10 - 25 could affect tooth eruption leading to a delay or earlier tooth eruption and primary tooth exfoliation.…”

Age and Sequence of Emergence of Permanent Teeth in a Population of Costa Rican Schoolchildren

“…The age of dental eruption is very important for orthodontics as well as for pediatric dentistry, since it assists in establishing a diagnosis and type of treatment; it is also useful in forensic science and anthropology because it allows age to be estimated when such information is not available (2,3). All the mechanisms involved in the timing of tooth eruption are not fully known because odontogenesis is a complex process and could be influenced by different aspects (4)(5)(6).…”