THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DEVELOPMENTAL DENTAL ENAMEL DEFECTS IN NEUROLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS

Abstract

Dental enamel defects are definitive chronological markers of the probable time of insult to a developing fetus and infant. Enamel defects are easily recognized developmental malformations that reflect physiological changes that alter normal amelogenesis. When the prevalence of enamel defects in different populations was studied, enamel defects were observed to be significantly more common in clinic children with neurological deficits than in clinic children with negative neurological examinations or in nonclinic children from the same general socioeconomic group. Enamel defects were significantly less common in nonclinic children from middle to upper income families than in children from low income families. Enamel defects occurred with greatest frequency in low IQ groups where, as was expected, neurological defects were most common. Chronologically distributed enamel defects are a significant aid in neurological diagnosis since they occur most commonly in brain damaged children and, in addition, may indicate the time of insult to the developing fetus or infant even when the history is reportedly negative.