Morphological and Numerical Characteristics of the Southern Chinese Dentitions. Part II: Traits in the Permanent Dentition

Aim: To investigate the prevalence of four major dental traits in the southern Chinese permanent dentition and to compare these with studies from different populations. Materials and Methods: The material used in the study consisted of high quality study models collected from 725 randomly selected 12-year-old children in Hong Kong (358 males and 367 females). The various traits were assessed using standard diagnostic criteria. Literature and data related to dental traits in the permanent dentition were sourced using PubMed and hand searches. Results: The mouth prevalence of shovelling, lingual tubercle, Carabelli’s trait, and protostylid were 80.4%, 38.9%, 50.5% and 37.5% respectively. The prevalence figure for the cusp type of Carabelli’s trait in this study (23.7%) was higher than for other Mongoloids. The prevalence figures for semi-shovel shaped maxillary incisors (42.6% to 48.6%) and the cusp type of protostylid trait in mandibular molars (10.1%) were higher than for any other populations. Conclusion: The higher prevalences of semi-shovel shaped maxillary incisors, and protostylid cusp on the mandibular molars can be considered to be characteristics of the southern Chinese permanent dentition.