Delayed tooth formation in low birthweight African-American children

Low birthweight (LBW) infants are susceptible to several developmental problems (e.g., pulmonary diseases, hyperbilirubinemia, hypocalcemia) with potentially long-lasting effects that slow growth during infancy and childhood. Dental age (DA), judged from stages of permanent tooth mineralization, was scored in 4- to 7-year-old LBW African-American children (N = 66; x = 5.5 years) to test whether they were delayed due to LBW and its consequences. Data were matched in a case-control fashion to African-American children with normal birth-weights (N = 76). Only the early-forming teeth (incisors, first molars) were delayed significantly in their formation. Children with the lowest height-for-age centiles were the most delayed dentally which suggests that height status would improve as dental age caught up with chronological age (CA). Older children were more delayed because there is a proportionately greater opportunity for DA to diverge from CA as children grow older. Since only those teeth undergoing rapid differentiation neonatally were affected systematically, it was speculated that perinatal insults may have an enduring impact on developing primordia, while leaving later-forming teeth unaffected.