A growing body of evidence links childhood obesity to accelerated timing of dentofacial growth. What is still unknown are the potential underlying mechanism(s) behind this association. This presentation describes the results of our prospective, cross-sectional study of children with obesity. Our key question is whether children with obesity with or without accelerated dental development show evidence of increased oral inflammation.
Learning Objectives:
After this lecture, attendees will be able to:
Define BMI and discuss limitations of this method of assessing obesity status.
Describe the current consensus of the literature regarding the influence of high BMI/obesity on timing of tooth eruption.
