Differential sensitivity in growth and development of dental and skeletal tissue to environmental quality

Abstract

Dental and skeletal development provide a measure of physiological age that can be used to predict the optimal timing for treatment in orthodontic, orthopaedic or paediatric clinical practice or to estimate chronological age of child skeletal remains in forensic or archaeological contexts. Because the environmental sensitivity of skeletal and dental development can affect the ability to predict treatment timing and accuracy of age estimations, it is important to understand how these two tissues respond differently to environmental insults, such disease or malnutrition. This paper reviews the literature that supports the general assertion that dental development is less affected by environmental quality than skeletal development. It is concluded that the environmental sensitivity of tooth formation (compared to tooth eruption) has been rarely assessed and that there is a paucity of studies that examine the development of both tissues against socioeconomic and nutritional status or non-genetic disease.

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