Assessment of dentofacial variations in monozygotic twins

Victor Tu

doi:10.5195/d3000.2017.76

Abstract

With dentofacial development being a multifactorial process, we face the question of whether genetic or environmental factors play a larger role in specific phenotypic traits. The use of twin studies allows one to employ genetic controls to the study such that one can focus solely on traits that may be more environmentally determined. This study involves retrospective as well as current analytical measurements between a set of monozygotic twins to assess genetic and outside influences on facial and intraoral development. While similarities were acknowledged, we found differences in measurements of the facial thirds, the congenital presence of mandibular third molars, and the presence of mandibular tori.

Highlights

Dentofacial development is a multifactorial phenomenon that relies on the interactions between multiple genes, environmental contributions and epigenetic fac-‐ tors that all come together like pieces of a puzzle to yield a defini-‐ tive set of phenotypic attributes
Much of the studies on dentofacial characteristics and pathologies have been focused on the contrib-‐ uting role of genetics in the hopes of being able to utilize it as a tool in diagnosis and treatment plan-‐ ning
This is at-‐ tributed to the reasoning that any differences observed in a physical feature between monozygotic twins that are genetically identical implies that environmental factors may play a significant role in that aspect of a person compared to the other more genetically con-‐ trolled phenotypes

Summary

Introduction

Dentofacial development is a multifactorial phenomenon that relies on the interactions between multiple genes, environmental contributions and epigenetic fac-‐ tors that all come together like pieces of a puzzle to yield a defini-‐ tive set of phenotypic attributes. This is at-‐ tributed to the reasoning that any differences observed in a physical feature between monozygotic twins that are genetically identical implies that environmental factors may play a significant role in that aspect of a person compared to the other more genetically con-‐ trolled phenotypes. Past studies between monozygotic adult twins have uncovered differences in measurements of the anterior cranial base, man-‐ dibular body length, total facial height, and lower facial height [1].

Results

Conclusion