Mesiodistal crown diameters of the primary and permanent teeth in southern Chinese--a longitudinal study

The mesiodistal crown diameters of the primary and permanent teeth were measured on serial casts of 112 Hong Kong Southern Chinese (61 males and 51 females) taken at 5.68 and 12.31 years of age. None of the teeth showed significant sex difference in bilateral asymmetry, and significant bilateral asymmetry was found only for the upper primary second molars. The asymmetries were small and the sizes of the antimeres were averaged. Posterior teeth were generally less variable than anterior teeth in both dentitions in Chinese, which is contrary to other reports, but the anterior tooth of each morphological class was, in general, less variable than the posterior member. Male teeth were larger than those of females except for the lower central and lateral incisors in both dentitions, but the difference was not statistically significant. None of the primary teeth nor three of the permanent teeth were found to have significant sex differences in size. Percentage sexual dimorphism ranged from 0.06 to 1.97 per cent for the primary teeth and from 0.36 to 5.27 per cent for the permanent teeth. In the primary dentition, molars were the most dimorphic teeth in both arches, while upper incisors and lower canine were the least dimorphic teeth in their own arch. Among the permanent teeth, the canines were the most dimorphic and the incisors were among the least dimorphic teeth in both arches. Tooth sizes in both dentitions were, in general, larger than those of the Caucasians, comparable with Northern Chinese, but smaller than those of Australian Aboriginals.