Dr. Christina Nicholas of the University of Illinois-Chicago
Dr. Christina Nicholas, biological anthropologist in the Department of Orthodontics at the University of Illinois-Chicago, will be sharing her research.
“Nearly one-third of US children are overweight or obese, representing a pressing public health concern,” she said. “Obesity increases inflammation and affects the body’s metabolism, which have the potential of having long-term consequences for growing children. It has been documented that obese children hit their pubertal growth spurt at younger ages, and there is now a mounting body of evidence that both skeletal and dental growth are accelerated. This has implications for systemic health, oral health, and forensic identification. This talk gives an overview of anthropological and dental considerations for high BMI children.”
Dr. Nicholas is a dental anthropologist with a background in paleoanthropology as well as oral health research. She brings these disparate strengths to crafting questions regarding environmental influences on human craniofacial growth and oral health.
This is a brown bag event, so please bring your lunch and join us for an hour on Friday, March 6, 2020, at 12:00 p.m. in Schroeder Hall 206.
