DT News - UK - Obesity may influence response to orthodontic treatment in minors

Dental Tribune International

Fri. 3 February 2017

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LONDON, UK: In Western countries like the UK, it is estimated that almost every third child is now overweight or obese. At the same time, an increasing number of children are receiving fixed braces to correct malocclusions at an early age. A new study conducted by researchers at King’s College London Dental Institute and published in the Journal of Dental Research has now indicated that the response to this particular type of treatment can significantly vary depending on a child’s body weight.

In the cohort study, the researchers followed a number of adolescent patients, who were classified as normal weight or obese based upon their body mass index, from the start of their treatment to the completion of tooth alignment. During the examinations, it was found that those patients who were obese had a significantly increased rate of initial tooth movement and required less time to achieve tooth alignment compared with normal-weight patients.

The researchers also noticed increased levels of inflammatory biomarkers in the gingival tissue of obese patients prior to orthodontic treatment.

The first of its kind to study the relation between obesity and orthodontic tooth movement, it demonstrates that the condition in adolescent patients influences the supporting tissue around the tooth, the researchers said, and this could have important implications for orthodontic treatment outcome in obese patients over both the short and long term.

Levels of obesity have increased significantly throughout all age groups in Western societies in the last two decades, and it has been linked to multiple chronic diseases, including periodontal inflammation. In a 2015/2016 evaluation, Public Health England found that 14 per cent of one million schoolchildren in the UK were classified as overweight and almost 20 per cent as obese.

The King’s study, titled “Impact of obesity on orthodontic tooth movement in adolescents: A prospective clinical cohort study”, was published online on 23 January in the Journal of Dental Research.

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