RESUMO
The dentition is an extremely important organ in mammals with variation in timing and sequence of eruption, crown morphology, and tooth size enabling a range of behavioral, dietary, and functional adaptations across the class. Within this suite of variable mammalian dental phenotypes, relative sizes of teeth reflect variation in the underlying genetic and developmental mechanisms. Two ratios of postcanine tooth lengths capture the relative size of premolars to molars (premolar-molar module, PMM), and among the three molars (molar module component, MMC), and are known to be heritable, independent of body size, and to vary significantly across primates. Here, we explore how these dental traits vary across mammals more broadly, focusing on terrestrial taxa in the clade of Boreoeutheria (Euarchontoglires and Laurasiatheria). We measured the postcanine teeth of N = 1,523 boreoeutherian mammals spanning six orders, 14 families, 36 genera, and 49 species to test hypotheses about associations between dental proportions and phylogenetic relatedness, diet, and life history in mammals. Boreoeutherian postcanine dental proportions sampled in this study carry conserved phylogenetic signal and are not associated with variation in diet. The incorporation of paleontological data provides further evidence that dental proportions may be slower to change than is dietary specialization. These results have implications for our understanding of dental variation and dietary adaptation in mammals.
RESUMO
AIMS: There are many factors that play into the success or failure of dental treatments, and mental health has been hypothesized to increase failure rates in treatment such as resin-based restorations. The goal of this work was to evaluate if composite resin dental restorations perform the same in individuals with depression in comparison to matched individuals without depression. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 6,026 individuals from the University of Pittsburgh Dental Registry and DNA Repository project were evaluated and 326 patients with depression were selected for this study. They were matched by age, sex, ethnicity, and smoking history with 326 subjects without depression. Rates of failure of resin-based restorations were determined in both groups. Chi-square was used for all comparisons with alpha set at 0.05. We found significantly higher failure rates of resin-based restorations in patients diagnosed with clinical depression (p < 0.00001, OR = 1.89, 95% C.I. 1.6 to 2.23). DISCUSSION: The significantly higher failure rates in patients with clinical depression suggests that clinical depression has an effect on the success of resin-based restorations. The results of this study suggest a need for more personalized dental care for patients, which includes taking into account their mental health and its subsequent effects on oral health and hygiene, and customized definitions of follow-up time intervals.
