Wednesday, July 16, 2008 Finding no tooth By Zosimo T. Literatus, R.M.T. Breakthroughs
PHYSICIAN Martin Fischer observed: “I find that most men would rather have their bellies opened for five hundred dollars than have a tooth pulled for five.”
Is it because a tooth is so much valuable to man? Or is the pain and apprehension associated with tooth extraction such a frightful experience? Your answer is as good as anyone else's, and perhaps more similar than we could expect.
And yet, valuable or not, you don’t have to be hit by the straight punch of the new World Boxing Council featherweight champion Manny Pacquiao to lose your teeth.
For one, the Filipino icon is not inclined to do so unless you happened to be a David Diaz who forgot to wear his mouth guard or failed to fall in round nine.
For another, there is such a medical condition as “tooth agenesis.”
Tooth agenesis, not growing one or more teeth (oligodentia), is the most common malformation in the head. It can occur as an isolated condition, or as part of a multi-symptomatic syndrome.
The major causes of the isolated kind are mutations of two DNA transcription factor genes, PAX9 (primarily affect premolars, the teeth used for grinding and chewing) and MSX1 (mostly occurring in molars, the large back teeth).
Oligodentia syndrome often occurs with abnormal nail growth, dry skin, fine hair and sweating defects. Sweating defects involve a failure to sweat due to the lack of sweat glands, a major disability in hot climates including our own. To date, there are more than 49 syndromes associated with tooth agenesis.
A recent genetic study by a team of 10 scientists indicated that oligodentia affects the family spanning four to five generations. The team is from the State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology of the Nanjing Stomatological Hospital, a teaching hospital of the Nanjing University (Nanjing, China), with Shufeng Li leading them.
In results published in PLoS One in June, an X-gene-related isolated tooth agenesis is twice found among males than females.
However, manifestations are not uniform varying from a severe loss of all teeth classes to predominant loss of incisor teeth with all permanent molars intact.
And there has been no problem in the scalp and body hair, skin, nails, and sweating ability.
Interestingly, the severe form can be traced to people with Mongolian ancestry, while the milder variety is found among those with Indian forebear.
This discovery reminds us of who we are more than where we came from.
William Faulkner, author of the fine novel The Sound and the Fury, noted the same thing: “There is no such thing as was because the past is. It is part of every man, every woman, and every moment. All of his and her ancestry, background, is all a part of himself and herself at any moment.”
