Nutritional Conditions and Exposure to Maternal and Child Environmental Pollutants in the Development of Dental Enamel Defects in the First 1000 Days of Life.

Maternal and child malnutrition is highly prevalent in low- and middle-income countries, resulting in substantial mortality increases and overall disease burden. Nutrition can act systemically and locally in relation to oral changes (HUJOEL,2017). Thus, developmental defects of dental enamel (DED) may be associated with nutritional exposures and feeding practices during the first 1,000 days of life. (ABANTO, 2018; CHAVES, 2007; RUGG-GUNN, 1998) and the relationship with serum concentrations of micronutrients such as vitamins D and A, and calcium, has been investigated. (VAN DER TAS, 2018; MORKMUED, 2017). Likewise, dental tissues can be targets of environmental pollutants, such as Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), resulting in formation and structure abnormalities, especially enamel (BIANCHI, 2019; NEGCOC, 2018). Considering that the beginning of enamel mineralization of deciduous teeth begins approximately between the 13th and 19th week of the intrauterine period of life and is completed during the first year of postnatal life (LUNT, 1974), primary dentition DED have been associated with possible complications during the pre, peri and postnatal periods. (WAGNER, 2017; ELFRINK, 2014; JACOBSEN, 2013; RUGG-GUNN, 1998). Another important issue to be highlighted is the positive association between DED and dental caries in both deciduous and permanent dentition, observed in a systematic review, where children with DED were more likely to present dental caries than those without such defects (COSTA, 2017).