Mesiodistal crown diameters of permanent teeth in jordanians

Mesiodistal crown diameters were measured from dental casts of the permanent teeth of 198 Jordanians (86 males and 112 females), aged 13.4–19.1 years. The differences in the crown diameters between the right- and left-hand sides of the dental arch were not significant, suggesting that either right- or left-side measurements could be taken to represent the tooth size of the study population. Males had significantly larger teeth than females, ranging from p < 0.05 for the incisors to p < 0.001 for the first molars. In both sexes, the maxillary lateral incisors showed the greatest variability [coefficient of variation (CV) 8.8%] and the first molar the least (CV 5.8%) in mesiodistal diameter. Canines displayed greater sexual dimorphism in crown size than any other tooth class. The cumulative tooth widths of males exceeded those of females by a sum of 3.1 mm in the maxilla and 3.6 mm in the mandible. These differences were statistically significant (p < 0.01). Comparisons of the mesiodistal crown diameters between population groups showed that Jordanians have tooth sizes close to those of Iraqis, but significantly larger than those of Yemenite-Jews, Caucasians and Chinese.