Babies with few teeth by age one 'more likely to need an orthodontist in the future'
Babies who have developed few teeth by their first birthday are more likely to need an orthodontist in the future, a new study suggests.
Researchers have uncovered a link between the delayed appearance of milk teeth and the need for future corrective work.
Orthodontists carry out a range of work including closing gaps, correcting overlapping teeth and bites and are mostly associated with fitting braces.
The research, which involved teams from Imperial College London, the University of Bristol and the University of Oulu in Finland, has identified several genes which affect tooth development in the first year of life.
They found that babies who carried specific genetic variants tended to have fewer teeth by their first birthday than other children.
By the time they turned 30 those carrying one of the genes were 35 per cent more likely than their classmates to need treatment by an orthodontist.
The study scanned the genetic code of 6,000 people from Finland and Britain whose health had been followed from birth.
Previous studies have shown that tooth development is also linked to that of the skull, jaws, ears, fingers, toes and heart.
Prof Marjo-Riitta Jarvelin, from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, said that the findings could have important implications beyond teeth.
She said: "The discoveries of genetic and environmental determinants of human development will help us to understand the development of many disorders which appear later in life.
“We hope also that these discoveries will increase knowledge about why fetal growth seems to be such an important factor in the development of many chronic diseases."
The findings are published in the journal PLoS Genetics.
- Kate Devlin
© Telegraph.co.uk
