Abstract:

Objective To investigate the Carabelli's traits on permanent maxillary molars in Han Chinese college students. Methods Intraoral photos and plaster models from 803 Han Chinese college students were observed and the Carabelli's traits on permanent maxillary molars were categorized by the Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System. Chi-square tests were performed for the comparison of the differences between male and female, permanent maxillary first and second molars. Kendall's tau-b correlation analyses were performed for the correlation between bilateral antimeric molars. Results The frequencies of Carabelli's traits on permanent maxillary first and second molars were 37.61% and 3.99% respectively, 46.73% and 6.30% in males, 27.95% and 1.54% in females, which were statistically significant between permanent maxillary first and second molars (P<0.01), male and female (P<0.01). In the positive expression, the low-grade expression (ASUDAS 1-4) was predominant and accounted for 67.37% and 59.52% on the permanent maxillary first and second molars. The correlation between bilateral antimeric teeth were statistically significant on permanent maxillary first molars (tau-b=0.756,P<0.01) and second molars (tau-b=0.477,P<0.01). Conclusion The Carabelli's traits on permanent maxillary molars in Han Chinese college students mostly occur on permanent maxillary first molars with low-grade expression, and understanding this has great anthropological and clinical significance.

Key words: cusp of Carabelli, Carabelli's trait, dental non-metric trait, dental anthropology, dental anatomy