Population-based genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of tooth eruption in children have the capacity to provide complementary information to these studies, by identifying common genetic variation which is associated with non-pathological differences in the timing of tooth eruption between individuals. Loci implicated by GWASs may not necessarily be the same as those that have been identified in molecular studies or be associated with abnormalities, but rather may reflect variation in genes important in more subtle aspects of tooth development, including differences in the timing of tooth eruption or perhaps even genetic variation important in more generalized aspects of growth and development.
