Abstract

While the presentation of Short Root Anomaly (SRA) in Hispanic patients has been described previously, it is not known if this population is predisposed to increased orthodontic root resorption. This study evaluates the response of pre-existing short roots in Hispanic SRA patients to orthodontic treatment. Selected maxillary and mandibular teeth of 40 Hispanic SRA patients (19 male, 21 female) and 40 age and gender matched Caucasian patients (19 male, 21 female) with normal root length were evaluated for root resorption following comprehensive orthodontic treatment. The age range of the subjects was between 10 and 19 years. Relative root length was calculated before and after orthodontic treatment from digital panoramic radiographs. Overall, statistically significant root resorption occurred in the control group, but orthodontic root resorption was not significant in the Hispanic group (p > 0.05). When genders were separated, Hispanic females did experience a mild degree of root resorption in the upper incisors while resorption in Hispanic males was not significant. Caucasian females experienced greater root resorption than Caucasian males. Hispanic SRA patients may be safely treated with comprehensive orthodontics and could be at no more risk of root resorption than Caucasian patients with normal initial root length.

Highlights

  • There are two main causes of short dental roots: 1) disturbances during root development or 2) resorption of well-developed roots

  • The objective of this study was to assess changes in root lengths that occur with orthodontic treatment by comparing: 1. pre-and post-treatment digital panoramic radiographs of Hispanic patients presenting with short dental root lengths; 2. the experience of Hispanic patients and Caucasian patients presenting with normal dental root lengths; and 3. gender differences within each ethnicity group

  • There have been many claims that Short Root Anomaly (SRA) predisposes patients to increased orthodontic root resorption, for example the study of Wang and Feng [6]. It is not known if this cohort experiences a higher degree of orthodontic root resorption, or if they experience a similar degree of resorption to unaffected patients, but the appearance is more suggestive due to their pre-existing short roots

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Summary

Introduction

There are two main causes of short dental roots: 1) disturbances during root development or 2) resorption of well-developed roots. Short-rooted permanent teeth can be genetic, known as short root anomaly (SRA) [1, 2], or exogenous, including irradiation of the head and neck and/or chemotherapy in childhood during tooth development [3]. Puranik et al [4] identified a population of Hispanic orthodontic patients presenting with SRA. In cases of pre-existing short root length (Figure 1), orthodontists should be aware if greater root resorption is anticipated as normal orthodontic treatment could sentence these teeth to exfoliation or extraction. Two recent publications proposed such potential hazards, but did not supply clinical evidence [6, 7]. This is the first study, to the authors’ knowledge, that has investigated the response of dental roots to orthodontic treatment in a Hispanic SRA population

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