Abstract
Cross sectional studies suggest a link may exist between tooth emergence and obesity. To explore this relationship, we aimed to evaluate the prospective associations between primary tooth emergence and anthropometric measures in young adults. Multivariable linear regression was used to analyse relationships between primary tooth emergence, and anthropometric measures measured at 17.8 years, in 2977 participants (1362 males and 1615 females) from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). In minimally adjusted models, ‘quintiles of number of paired teeth’ (assessed by questionnaire at 15 months) was positively associated with height [change in height (cm) per quintile increase in ‘number of paired teeth’ (β) = 0.35 (95%CI: 0.18, 0.52) P = 0.0001] and weight [ratio of geometric mean weight per quintile increase in ‘number of paired teeth’ (RGM) = 1.015 (95%CI: 1.010, 1.019) P<0.0001]. The relationship with weight was largely driven by fat mass, which showed an equivalent relationship with ‘quintiles of number of paired teeth’ to that seen for weight [RGM = 1.036 (95%CI: 1.022, 1.051) P<0.0001] (adjusted for height)]. Conversely, no association was seen between ‘quintiles of number of paired teeth’ and lean mass. An increase in ‘quintiles of number of paired teeth’ at age 15 months was associated with a higher Tanner stage at age 13 in girls but not boys, but further adjustment of associations between ‘quintiles of number of paired teeth’ and anthropometric traits for Tanner stage was without effect. Primary tooth emergence is associated with subsequent fat mass, suggesting these could share common constitutive factors, and that early primary tooth emergence may represent a hitherto unrecognised risk factor for the development of obesity in later life.
Highlights
Thirty percent of children in Western countries such as the UK are overweight or obese [1], which has major adverse implications for public health [2,3]
Our recent genome wide association study (GWAS) of tooth emergence identified associations with variants in genes that have been implicated in obesity, HMGA2 and BMP4, suggesting a hitherto unrecognised link may exist between tooth emergence and obesity [5,6]
At age 17.8 years, boys were taller than girls and had greater lean mass, whereas fat mass was higher in girls
Summary
Thirty percent of children in Western countries such as the UK are overweight or obese [1], which has major adverse implications for public health [2,3]. Our recent genome wide association study (GWAS) of tooth emergence identified associations with variants in genes that have been implicated in obesity, HMGA2 and BMP4, suggesting a hitherto unrecognised link may exist between tooth emergence and obesity [5,6]. In 110 Mexican children, children in higher BMI categories had greater number of teeth than children in lower categories [13]. Taken together, these studies suggest that there is an association between obesity and tooth emergence, but due to their cross sectional nature, it is not possible to establish cause and effect
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