21 July 2023

---

Is there a genetic predisposition to dental caries?

Lara Figini

---

Dental caries is a chronic biofilm-driven, sugar-dependent disease modulated by multiple factors and represents a global public health challenge with high incidence and prevalence rates.

Some studies have reported an association between dental caries experience and genetics, stating that genes can function as risk or protective factors for caries. But in the scientific literature, there is no agreement on this topic, so much so that other studies have shown that environmental factors overlap with genetics from prenatal life.

Considering that monozygotic twins (MZ) have identical genetic codes, while dizygotic twins (DZ) share only a part of their genes, comparative studies between them have become relevant to estimate the participation of genotype and environment in the occurrence of dental caries in the population.

Materials and methods

In a systematic review published online in June 2023 in the Journal of Dentistry, the authors evaluated the coincidence of the presence of dental caries between monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins.

The research team conducted a systematic review through the following databases: Embase, Medline-PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and through hand searches and gray literature Google Scholar® and Opengray.

Observational studies evaluating dental caries in twins were included. The risk of bias was analyzed using the Joanna Briggs checklist. Meta-analyses were performed to assess pooled probabilities and to estimate concordance values of dental caries experience and DMF index between twin pairs (p < 0.05). The GRADE scale was used to assess the certainty of the evidence.

Results

The team identified 2,533 studies were identified, of which 19 included in the qualitative analysis, six in the quantitative synthesis, with two meta-analyses in progress. An association between genetics and disease development has been observed in most studies.

In the analysis of the risk of bias, 47.4% showed a moderate risk. Greater agreement on the experience of dental caries was observed in monozygotic twins compared with dizygotic twins in both dentitions (OR: 5.94; 95% CI: 2.00-17.57). However, there was no difference between the MZ and DZ twin groups in the analysis comparing DMF index agreement (OR: 2.86; 95% CI: 0.25-32.79).

The certainty of the evidence was considered low and exceptionally low for all studies included in the meta-analysis.

Conclusions

From the data in this study, researchers concluded that there is a low certainty that genetic factors can influence the onset of caries.

Angela Maria Cardoso dos Anjos et al. "Is there an association between dental caries and genetics? Systematic review and meta-analysis of studies with twins." Journal of Dentistry, Volume 135, 2023, 104586, ISSN 0300-5712, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdent.2023.104586.