Relationship and impact of obesity/malnutrition on dental skeletal maturation

Introduction: Child nutrition is a major concern worldwide that affects 1 in 12 children, representing a priority in Public Health. It has been documented it impacts all areas of a child's development, including their skeletal and dental development. This review addresses a series of related aspects about the available evidence on the association between malnutrition and childhood dental-skeletal development. Background: Studies have been carried out in many parts of the world, some works consulted were carried out in Brazil, India, Italy and the United States. It can be considered that the topic has been approached internationally, having a multiethnic background, which raises questions regarding the influence that eco-epidemiological characteristics of the different places and the possible impact of associated epigenetic processes could have on this association to the problem addressed. Inconsistency in findings. There are some variations found between the results in the consulted studies regarding to the association between obesity/malnutrition and dental-skeletal development/chronological age, which may be to methodological approach, rather than epigenetic factors.