Endocrine Factors in Dental Development

Abstract

Dental and skeletal development were compared in extremes of non-endocrine and endocrine advancement and delay. In non-endocrine developmental delays, in congenital hypothyroidism, and in hypopituitarism, the teeth were delayed, but to a lesser extent than the postcranial skeleton. In hypopituitarism, the degree of dental retardation (about 25 per cent) more nearly approximated the degree of skeletal retardation (50 per cent), whereas in the athyrotic, dental delay was little more than 10 per cent retarded when skeletal development was 60 per cent retarded. In constitutional and endocrine sexual precocities, dental advancement was noted along with skeletal advancement, but (except for the adrenogenital syndrome with pseudohermaphroditism) the degree of dental advancement was small. In the XO, dental development tended toward advancement, but the inconstant advancement could not be explained on endocrine grounds alone. The authors acknowledge with sincere thanks the invaluable assistance of Dr. Frederic N. Silverman of the Children's Hospital in Cincinnati, Dr. Meinhard Robinow of the Yellow Springs Clinic, and Dr. John S. Spaulding of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Thanks are due also to Sachiyo Kakehashi for the illustrations and to Dorothy Gross for typing the manuscript. © 1965, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.