[A dental anthropological study of Chinese in Taiwan (2). Teeth size, dental arch dimensions and forms]

Both upper and lower dental study models were collected from 30 boys (12 years old) and 30 girls (12 years old) with acceptable normal occlusion to understand the characteristics of the crown size, dental arch width and length such as (1) mesiodistal diameters of crown size from central incisor to first molar, (2) the width and length of dental arch and basal arch and (3) the morphology of dental arch form. After statistical analysis, data were compared with Japanese, Central and South American Indians and North American Caucasians from papers. The results were: (1) There was no statistical difference in teeth size between males and females, except the upper first molar of males was larger than that of females, lower central incisor of males was smaller than that of females. (2) The dimensions of dental arch of males were larger than that of females in general, especially such items as width and length of basal arch. (3) The crown size of Chinese male was in generally smaller than that of four other races, especially the upper canine, lower central incisor and first molar. The crown size of Chinese females showed that although the lower first molar was smaller than that of Central and South American Indians, but the upper first premolar, lower canine and central incisor were larger than that of Japanese. Upper lateral incisor was larger than that of South American Indians. Compared to that of North American Caucasians, Chinese females had a smaller upper central incisor and a larger upper first premolar. (4) The dimensions of dental arch in Chinese were very similar to Japanese, South and Central American Indians, but wider and shorter than Central and South American Indians. (5) The superimposition of dental arch form showed that the four races of Mongoloids had similar ovoid dental arch forms.