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Correlation Between Height and Impacted Third Molars and Genetics Role in Third Molar Impaction

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Abstract

Aim

This study sought to evaluate the relationship between height of an individual and the presence of impaction of maxillary and mandibular third molars, and to determine the role of genetics in third molar impaction.

Materials and Methods

This was a case–control study, with cases consisted of 200 subjects with third molar impactions; and 200 controls without third molar impactions. Height of subjects was measured, and saliva samples were collected from all the subjects. DNA was extracted from saliva samples. To investigate the role of selected genes in the etiology of third molar impactions, Taqman Genotyping using SNPs identified for jaw growth, height and tooth agenesis was employed. Five candidate genes were investigated using 11 markers (SNPs).

Results

The mean height of cases was significantly lower than that of the control subjects (p = 0.04). No difference was found in allele frequency between cases and controls for 10 of the 11 SNPs. However, for rs6504591 the p value was near significance (p = 0.07) with odd ratio of 2.131. Subjects with lower third molar impactions were significantly shorter than those who have fully erupted third molars.

Conclusions

Subjects with lower third molar impactions were significantly shorter than those who have fully erupted third molars. We observed that individuals with third molar impaction tend to have T allele at the locus, suggesting that the T allele at the locus may increase the risk for having an impacted third molar. The rs6504591 G/T variation on human chromosome 17 (WNT9B gene) appears to increase risk by twofolds for impaction albeit with inability to detect significance due to small sample size.

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Acknowledgements

This research was conducted with supports from University of Lagos Central Research Committee (CRC) Grant (CRC NO/2014/05) to WLA and K99/R00 Grant DE0223/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant (72429) to AB.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, College of Medicine University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria

    Wasiu L. Adeyemo & Olutayo James

  2. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria

    Afisu A. Oladega, Olawale O. Adamson, Adeola A. Adekunle & Kehinde D. Olorunsola

  3. Department of Oral Pathology, Radiology and Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA

    Tamara Busch & Azeez Butali

Authors
  1. Wasiu L. Adeyemo
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  2. Olutayo James
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  3. Afisu A. Oladega
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  4. Olawale O. Adamson
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  5. Adeola A. Adekunle
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  6. Kehinde D. Olorunsola
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  7. Tamara Busch
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  8. Azeez Butali
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Correspondence to Wasiu L. Adeyemo.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Adeyemo, W.L., James, O., Oladega, A.A. et al. Correlation Between Height and Impacted Third Molars and Genetics Role in Third Molar Impaction. J. Maxillofac. Oral Surg. 20, 149–153 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12663-020-01336-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12663-020-01336-9

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