Prevalence of aberrant dental morphological details in 6-10 year old school children in an Indian population

Morphological variations and prevalence of aberrant traits of primary molars

BACKGROUND

Morphological variations in tooth structure exhibit as metric and non-metric traits which play an important role in dental anthropology.

AIM

The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of morphometric traits and mean crown dimensions of primary molars in children.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

This cross-sectional study was carried out in 4256 sectional dye casts of caries-free children aged 2.5-4 years from Puducherry. Two calibrated examiners graded the non-metric traits utilising the Arizona State University Dental Anthropological System classification and measured the crown dimensions in primary molars. The results are expressed in the form of numbers and percentages.

RESULTS

Of the eight non-metric traits studied, metaconule (30.17%), Cusp of Carabelli (90.6%), and deflecting wrinkle (87.41%) in second primary molars, and distal trigonid crest (93.06%) and parastyle (3.48%) in first primary molars, seemed to have higher prevalence, and the overall crown dimensions were found to be smaller in comparison with those in other populations.

CONCLUSION

This study highlights the prevalence of aberrant dental traits in primary molars in a population. The study describes, for the first time, the existence of these traits in first primary molars, adding anthropological significance of primary dentition in various other populations.

Frequency and degree of inter-trait association of maxillary Non-Metric Dental Crown Traits in the permanent dentitions of two states of India

Non-metric Dental Crown Traits are a principal source of information in forensic dentistry. However, inadequate data on the prevalence of these traits prompted this study to determine the frequency, sexual dimorphism and degree of inter-trait association in two different populations of India. Dichotomized data on the existence of non-metric features were recorded among individuals from Odisha (n=506) and Kerala (n=536) between 15 to 30 years of age. Cusp of Carabelli is the most common trait to occur (48 %) followed by shovelling of incisors (15%) and Bushman canine (14%). Bushman canine (p=0.045) and Cusp of Carabelli (p = 0.041) were found to be significantly expressed in Odisha and Kerala populations respectively. A strong association between shovelling of central incisor and Bushman canine with a likelihood ratio of 14.041 (p=0.001) was observed. This study will help in characterizing the Indian dentition and post-mortem dental profiling.

Nonmetric traits of permanent posterior teeth in Kerala population: A forensic overview

Introduction:

Dental morphology is a highly heritable characteristic which is stable with time and has a fairly high state of preservation. Nonmetric dental traits have crucial role in ethnic classifications of a population that helps in forensic racial identification purposes.

Aims and Objectives:

To determine the frequency and variability of possible nonmetric tooth traits using extracted permanent posterior teeth from Kerala population for discerning racial ethnicity.

Materials and Methods:

This qualitative, cross-sectional study was carried out using 1743 extracted intact permanent posterior teeth collected from different dental clinics situated all over Kerala.

Results:

The more common features on premolars were multiple lingual cusps (31.21%), distal accessary ridges (16.28%) and Tom's root (17.9%). In upper first molars, Carabelli trait expression was 17.78% and other common features included metaconulo, cusp 5 and enamel extensions.

Conclusion:

Posterior tooth traits had variable expression in the study population. Low prevalence rate of Carabelli trait in this study is characteristic of Asian population. This research explored new elements of invaluable tooth traits values to understand racial ethnicity of Kerala population.

Ethnic Association of Cusp of Carabelli Trait and Shoveling Trait in an Indian Population

INTRODUCTION

Variations in the structure of teeth have always been of great interest to the dentist from the scientific as well as practical point of view. Additionally, ever since decades inter trait relationships have been a useful means to categorize populations to which an individual belongs.

AIM

To determine the association between Cusp of Carabelli and Shoveling Trait in a selected Indian population native of Bangalore city, Karnataka, India.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A cross-sectional study was carried out in 1885 children aged between 7-10 years. Casts of the study subjects were made to study the presence of Cusp of Carabelli of right maxillary permanent molar and shoveling trait of right maxillary permanent central incisor using the Dahlberg's classification and Hrdliucka's classification respectively. Linear regression was used to assess the association of cusp of carabelli trait with the tooth dimensions and logistic regression was used to evaluate the association of the carabelli trait with gender and presence/absence of shoveling.

RESULTS

A 40.5% of subjects had Cusp of Carabelli on first molar and 68.2% had shoveling on upper central incisor. The study revealed positive association between the two traits studied in the population. A significant difference was also found with presence of Cusp of Carabelli and the buccolingual tooth dimension of the maxillary molar (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION

There is an association between the Cusp of Carabelli and the shoveling trait in the present study population, and this will be valuable in the determination of ethnic origin of an individual.