Prevalence of Palato Gingival Groove in Maxillary Lateral Incisors

Palato gingival grooves, also called palatoradicular grooves or radicular lingual grooves are developmental anomalies in which an infolding of the inner enamel epithelium and Hertwig’s epithelial root sheath create a groove that passes from the cingulam and extend varying distances apically on to the root. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of palato gingival groove in maxillary lateral incisors, and prevalence of caries in the groove. 200 patients of age ranged between 15-40 years, attending the Punjab Dental Hospital, Lahore were randomly selected for examination. Patients with missing or crowned lateral incisors were excluded from the study. All lateral incisors were carefully examined for the presence, extension of palato gingival and caries development in groove. The prevalence of palato gingival groove was 10%. They were found to be 6.75% as coronal groove and 3.25% as an apical groove. Bilateralism was found to be 57.5%, 63% for coronal and 46.15% for apical grooves. In male patients the prevalence was 65% and in female patients 35%. Caries prevalence was 35%, 18.5% for coronal groove and 69% for apical groove. It was concluded that prevalence of palato gingival groove is high in this community and show increased caries incidence.