What are the genetic factors affecting dental caries risk?
March 17, 2015
This summary is based on the article published in the Australian Dental Journal: Genetic factors affecting dental caries risk (March 2015)
S Opal, S Garg, J Jain, I Walia
Courtesy of Wiley Publishing, you can access the full-text article for the next 3 months here (PDF)
Context
- Dental caries is a complex, chronic, multifactorial disease and one of the most prevalent diseases in industrialized and developing countries. 1
- The Vipeholm study provided evidence of an individual’s resistance to caries despite being on a highly cariogenic diet. 3
- This suggests that susceptibility or resistance to caries could be a result of one or more genotypic, phenotypic and environmental influences.
Purpose of the Review
This article reviews the literature on genetic aspects of dental caries and provides a framework for the rapidly changing disease model of caries. The scope is genetic aspects of various dental factors affecting dental caries.
Key Messages
From the literature reviewed, it can be concluded that genes have a role to play in dental caries; however, both environmental and genetic factors have been implicated in the etiology of caries.
I’m no academic, but this appears to be a “monumental” work which shows the progress of dental research. All of those involved deserve recognition and thanks.
As a relatively “old” clinician, I continue to operate under the hopeful presumption that tooth decay can be eradicated by establishing protocols that treat dental caries as an infectious disease.
Someone younger will have to translate the insights of genetic research into clinical action.
This is a nice lit review, but it offers nothing new that we didn’t know. Yes “genetic factors play a role”, but we already knew that as we all know that dental caries is a multifactorial disease process.