Introduction: Teeth diameters play an important role in dental medicine, anthropology and forensics. Tooth size is defined by mesiodistal diameter (width), buccolingual diameter (thickness) and cervicoincisal diameter (lenght) crown or root. Aims: The aim of this study was to determine measurements of central tendency and variability for the standard diameters of teeth crowns and roots in the inhabitants of Slovenia and to confirm the following hypotheses: i) Slovenian’s average teeth diameters classify in the same ranges as of those who are European nationals or have European origin; ii) average diameters of left and right homologous teeth do not have any differences. Methods: A total of 949 extracted permanent teeth were taken from the study collection and the following dimensions were measured using a digital sliding caliper: the largest mesiodistal and buccolingual crown diameter, crown length, mesiodistal and buccolingual root diameter at the cementoenamel junction and root length. Dental diameters altered by diseases, dental procedures, injuries and advanced wear were not measured. The mean, median, standard deviation, coefficient of variation and range of tooth diameters were calculated. In the literature we found information about teeth size of other European nationals and populations with European origin.The t test was applied to examine any statistically significant difference between the average diameters of the left and right homologous teeth. The level of significance was set at P ⡤ 0,05. Results: Average diameters of permanent teeth in Slovenia’s population do classify in the same ranges as of those who are European nationals or have European origin. Moreover, we did not find any typical statistical differences between left and right homologous teeth, except in the lengths of distobuccal roots at first upper molar and distobuccal and palatinal roots at third upper molar. Discussion and conclusion: In accordance with the first hypothesis, average diameters of permanent teeth in Slovenia’s population are comparable with those who are included in the literature which includes European nation’s or population’s with European origin teeth diameter measurments. With the second hypothesis there were some differences between left and right lengths of molar’s roots. Left and right differences asymmetry could be related to the influence of environmental factors, which affect more on growth of dental root than crown. It would be reasonable to include our results in the study literature for future dentists and dental technicians.
|