Variation of Permanent Teeth Crowns in Three Nigerian Ethnic Populations

Tooth variation within populations is important for anthropologists and dentists. The objective was to compare crown dimensions among three Nigerian ethnic populations.

An electronic caliper was used to measure mesiodistal and buccolingual tooth width of maxillary and mandibular permanent teeth except third molars from study casts of 132 Nigerian subjects with a mean age of 19.03 ± 4.27 years. The Hausa sample was 50 (37.9%) subjects (25 males and 25 females); the Yoruba population was 50 (37.9%) subjects (15 males and 35 females) and the Igbo sample was 32 (24.2%) subjects (16 males and 16 females). Single teeth and sums of groups of teeth were compared between males and females within and among the three populations using analysis of variance.

The findings indicated that (1) differences between antimeres are of small magnitude and of no statistical significance; (2) Significant gender differences in tooth dimension was observed with Yoruba and Hausa males having significantly larger teeth but a significant gender difference was only observed for mesiodistal width of the maxillary second molars in the Igbo population; (3) there is a greater similarity among Yoruba and Igbo subjects with differences from their Hausa counterparts with a magnitude considered statistically and clinically significant.

The crown dimensions of Hausa males and females were significantly smaller than their Yoruba and Igbo counterparts. There were similarities in crown dimensions between Yoruba males and females and their Igbo counterparts. Sexual dimorphism of crown size was observed in the three ethnic groups.