A rapidly expanding body of research indicates that early social environments characterized by adversity, subordination and stress, along with individual differences in susceptibility to such environments, create risks for lifelong chronic diseases, including declines in oral health. Emerging findings suggest that gene-environment interplay, resulting in epigenetically regulated differences in gene expression, underlie many such declines in health. The origins of these processes in early life reveal how many of the chronic morbidities of adulthood should be viewed as developmental disorders, with etiologic roots in childhood.