Genetics in Pediatric Dentistry

Genetics can be defined as the science of heredity and variation that also plays an important role in determining a person's individuality.Genetics plays an important role in normal craniofacial development, abnormal dental anomalies and different to dental diseases such as dental caries, periodontitis and dental malocclusion. It is thus of importance to gather insight about different dental diseases, their genetic basis and the need for genetic screening and testing to avoid future problems. Pediatric dentists, health care practitioners are the first to document dysmorphic features in a child. Developmental defects of teeth can be inherited as complex trait with genetic and environmental interaction, isolated, genetic traits or can be associated with chromosomal abnormality or syndrome.This book summarizes about various genetic disorders commonly seen in the field of pediatric dentistry , role of genes in etiology of these disorders , its clinical implication and their prevention.