Ethnic variation of selected dental traits in Coorg

In a country like India, in addition to the great innate diversity, there are distinct migrant populations with unique dental traits.

To assess the distribution and degree of expression of cusp of Carabelli of maxillary first permanent molars and shoveling trait of maxillary central incisors, between three ethnic groups of Coorg, namely Kodavas, Tibetans, and Malayalees.

A cross-sectional, indirect, anthropometric, study was carried out among 15- to 30-year-old subjects belonging to three different ethnic origins. A random sample consisting of 91 subjects were recruited for the study. The shovel trait of incisors and the Carabelli trait of molars were recorded according to the classification given by Hrdliƈka and Sousa et al., respectively.

The Kruskal-Wallis test was employed to determine the difference in three populations for shoveling and Carabelli traits. Mann-Whitney Test was used for pair-wise comparisons of three populations.

Of the total 91 subjects, 31 were Kodavas, 30 Malayalees and 30 Tibetans. There was a statistically significant difference in shoveling trait among the three ethnic groups. For Carabelli traits, there was no statistically significant difference among three ethnic groups.

The present study findings showed that Tibetans have a higher degree of shoveling trait than the selected South Indian ethnic groups.