Sir, the excellent study done by Professor Martyn Cobourne and colleagues shows that obesity can affect the oral tissues and this can have effects on orthodontic tooth movement in adolescents.1 A recent study has mentioned that the probability of meeting the global obesity target is almost impossible.2 By 2025 global obesity prevalence in men and women will reach 18% and 21% respectively.
Adolescents and adults with an increased BMI may need a longer duration of treatment, with more appointments due to less co-operation and tooth movement.3 Due to the increase in global obesity more adolescents and adults may require orthodontic treatment and this will add to the economic burden in both developed and developing countries.
References
Saloom H F, Papageorgiou S N, Carpenter G H, Cobourne M T . Impact of obesity on orthodontic tooth movement in adolescents. J Dent Res 2017; 22034516688448.
NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC), Trends in adult body-mass index in 200 countries from 1975 to 2014: A pooled analysis of 1698 population-based measurement studies with 19.2 million participants. Lancet 2016; 387: 1377–1396.
Von Bremen J, Lorenz N, Ruf S . Impact of body mass index on oral health during orthodontic treatment: an explorative pilot study. Eur J Orthod 2016; 38: 386–392.
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Math, M., Kattimani, Y. Orthodontics: Link with obesity. Br Dent J 222, 564 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2017.340
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2017.340