Association of weight and height with timing of deciduous tooth emergence.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to associate weight and height with the timing of deciduous tooth emergence.

METHODS

1756 children, aged from 1 to 33 months (755 females and 1001 males) had been previously examined for the timing of deciduous tooth emergence and their weights and heights measured. Children were categorized into weight and height groups (underweight, normal, overweight, short stature, normal and tall stature). Probit regression analysis was used to calculate the ages at emergence of each deciduous tooth. Tooth emergence ages were compared pairwise across the weight and height groups.

RESULTS

The deciduous dentition emerged between 7.9-31.5, 7.8-29.6 and 6.3-26.5 months in the underweight, normal and overweight children, respectively. In the height groups, the ranges were 9.0-31.3, 7.4-27.0 and 6.7-24.3 in the short, normal and tall children, respectively. The extremes of weight and height were related to the times at deciduous tooth emergence where a substantial increase in weight or height was associated with earlier emergence, and vice versa. However, only canines, lateral incisors and upper central incisor showed statistically significant association with weight and none of the teeth exhibited statistically significant association with height. Moreover, no emergence sequence change was associated with weight and height.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study provides the first weight and height- specific data on the timing of deciduous tooth emergence. Although both weight and height are generally associated with the timing of deciduous tooth emergence, weight shows a stronger association for canines, lateral incisors and upper central incisor. The findings will aid assessing normal emergence timing in children with variant weights and heights.