Impact of Diet Consistency on the Mandibular Morphology: A Systematic Review of Studies on Rat Models

Abstract

Apart from genetics, environmental factors, such as food consistency, may affect craniofacial morphology and development. The present systematic review aims to systematically investigate and appraise the available evidence regarding the effect of diet consistency on the anatomical structures of the basal bone of the rat mandible. The search was performed without restrictions in five databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, including grey literature) and hand searching through January 2022. A total of 14,904 references were initially identified, and 16 articles were finally included in the systematic review. Rats that consumed hard diets were found to exhibit an increase inbigonial width, corpus height, condylar depth, condylar base inclination, condylar process inclination, mandibular plane inclination, height and length of angular process, mandibular body height, depth of antegonial notch, growth rate in the gonial angle, angular process convexity and height of condylar process. It was also noted that mandibular depth, mandibular height, ramus angle and angle between the angular process and mandibular plane were decreased in rats that were fed with a hard diet. On the other hand, there were conflicting results about the growth of mandibular length and width, corpus length, mandibular body length, ramus height, condylar length and width, gonial angle and height of coronoid process. From the abovementioned results, it can be concluded that food consistency may affect the morphology of anatomical structures and the overall growth and development of rat mandibles in various ways.

Effect of Diet Consistency on Rat Mandibular Growth: A Geometric Morphometric and Linear Cephalometric Study

“…In our study twenty-four wistar rats were grouped into hard diet group and soft diet group. Wistar rats were the experimental animal of choice because they are small, easy to house, report a minimal social concern, are short-lived and have well-known genetics, closely related to human development [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. We included only female rats in our study in order to minimize any possible bias.…”

“…Therefore the impact of diet consistency on craniofacial growth triggers lots of research. Various experimental studies, mainly in wistar rats, studied the effect of diet consistency to craniofacial growth [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. During the last century, the human masticatory muscles demands seem to be reduced.…”

Long-Term Effect of Diet Consistency on Mandibular Growth within Three Generations: A Longitudinal Cephalometric Study in Rats

“…Most of the research protocols looked over the effect of diet consistency to growth by using rats as experimental animals. Rats are usually the experimental animals of choice because they are small, can be easily housed, report a minimal social concern, have a short lifespan, and their genetic background and growth is well known, resembling those of humans [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ].…”

Understanding the relationship between orofacial structures and feeding habits of preschoolers: A multivariate analysis

“…For this reason, the introduction of different food textures has a positive impact on the maturation of chewing and influences the preferences and future eating habits (Kostecka et al, 2020; Linas et al, 2020). Indeed, a recent study showed that food consistency may affect the morphology of anatomical structures and the overall growth of rat mandibles (Karamani et al, 2022).…”