Is Sex More than A Risk Factor? Sex as Biological Variable and Oral Health

This perspective paper examines the critical importance of incorporating Sex as a Biological Variable (SABV) in dental research, with particular focus on restorative dentistry.While medical research has increasingly recognized sex differences as crucial for understanding disease etiology, progression, and treatment, dentistry has lagged behind.The authors highlight how sex is typically relegated to a "confounding variable" or "risk factor" in dental studies rather than being used for stratified analysis.The paper outlines methodological considerations for sex-specific study design, including factorial design approaches, appropriate sample size calculations, and statistical power requirements for detecting sex differences.Drawing parallels from medical research, the authors demonstrate how understanding sex differences could lead to more personalized and effective dental treatments.The manuscript concludes that implementing sex and gender-based analysis in dental research is essential for advancing from generalized to personalized dentistry, noting that unlike medicine, there is currently no recognizable trend toward sex-specific research in dentistry.