Heritability of dental arch dimensions in humans

The purposes of this study were to estimate the heritabilities of several human dental arch dimensions and compare the hereditary differences among kinships and among variables. The sample consisted of 102 Japanese families, each including both parents and one of their offspring, and on average all subjects had relatively well-aligned permanent dentitions. The heritabilities of all variables were estimated from the regression of offspring on parent and on midparent. Results showed that genetics played a role regarding dental arch dimensions, and arch perimeter (sum of tooth width) was a more definite genetic-related factor than other arch dimensions, such as width, length, or size. There were few significant hereditary differences between sons and daughters, and between upper and lower arches for each variable. Sex chromosomal involvement was not confirmed, but maternal effects were found to be more evident in daughters than in sons, for both arches. Comparisons among the heritabilities of overall and of anterior arch dimensions indicated that size of the anterior part of the dental arch might be less resistant to environmental factors, especially in case of the lower arch.