Importance of Hamular Distance for Calculation of the Width of Maxillary Anterior Teeth

Without pre-extraction photographs or casts it is not easy to select suitable artificial teeth. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the width of frontal maxillary teeth and the width of the hard palate. The aim was also to determine the possibility of reconstructing maxillary frontal teeth dimensions, based on hard palate dimensions. Teeth and hard palate dimensions were measured on maxillary casts of 80 fully dentate individuals (26 men and 56 women) of Angle class I occlusal relationship. The maxillary central incisor is the widest among the frontal maxillary teeth and canines are wider than second incisors. The width of the maxillary frontal teeth arch, measured with a flexible ruler is 52.05 mm, hamular distance 47.1 mm, distal maxillary width 46.1 mm, sum of the widths of all maxillary frontal teeth 46.04 mm, frontal maxillary width 35.8 mm, and finally the width between canine cusp tips is 34.19 mm. Based on the results of this study, the sum of all maxillary frontal teeth widths is equivalent to hamular distance dimension, as well as distal maxillary width, as there were no statistically significant differences between them. After extraction of all teeth, distal maxillary width is lost, which is not possible to reconstruct because of the individual rate of alveolar bone resorption. On the other hand, hamular distance remains the same dimension during the lifetime, because it is not determined by teeth position but by anatomical structures. Therefore, the hamular distance dimension is a suitable reference for determination of the dimension of the sum of all maxillary frontal teeth widths.