The mesiodistal crown diameters of primary dentition in Indonesian Javanese children Sri Kuswandari, Mizuho Nishino* Department of Paediatric Dentistry, Graduate School of Dentistry, The University of Tokushima, Kuramoto-cho 3-18-15, Tokushima 770-8504, Japan Accepted 24 September 2003 Introduction Dentition analysis of primary teeth is necessary for recognising and correcting occlusal problems in every stage of dental development to enable normal adult occlusion. 1 To perform this analysis, norma- tive data of mesiodistal tooth diameters are essen- tial. There are however, no normative data of mesiodistal crown diameters of primary dentition in Indonesian children. Normative data of American Whites 2 are usually used in Indonesia, but this data should not be adopted from other ethnic popula- tions due to significant differences in tooth dia- meters. 2 The population of Indonesia can be divided, basi- cally into two large groups, namely, Malay and Australomelanesid. The Malay population, including Mongoloid race, reside north and west of the Wal- lace line. This region is between the oriental and Australian realm, between the islands of Bali and Lombok, Kalimantan and Sulawesi, Mindanao and Sangir-Talaud. East of the Wallace line, the popula- tion is Australomelanesid. 3 Javanese is one tribe of the Malay, population. The majority of these people reside among other tribes in Indonesia, as well as on Java island, so the findings of the present study may represent the ethnic Malay population. Archives of Oral Biology (2004) 49, 217—222 KEYWORDS Mesiodistal crown diameter; Primary dentition; Indonesian Javanese Summary Dentition analysis of primary teeth is necessary for recognising and correct- ing occlusal problems in every stage of dental development to enable normal adult occlusion. To do this, normative data of mesiodistal tooth crown diameters from the same ethnic population are needed. The aims of this study were to gather normative data of mesiodistal crown diameters of primary dentition in Indonesian Javanese children and to compare this normative data with published data of other ethnic populations. Dental casts of 160 males and 137 females with acceptable occlusion, aged 3.25—6.58 years, were taken in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Mesiodistal diameter was measured as the distance between the anatomic contact points using calipers with accuracy to within 0.05 mm. Each measurement was taken twice on different occa- sions. The results indicated that the magnitude of asymmetry between right and left teeth was larger in distal teeth within a tooth field, larger in males than females, and larger in mandibular than maxillary teeth. The stability of mesiodistal tooth crown diameters was less in males than in females, and was most prominent in the mandibular central incisor. Sexual dimorphisms were found in, the lateral incisor and first molar in the maxilla, and the canine, first and second molars in the mandible. Compared with other ethnic populations, Indonesian Javanese falls between Hong Kong Chinese and Australian Aboriginal. ß 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ81-88-633-7358; fax: þ81-88-633-9132. E-mail address: nishino@dent.tokushima-u.ac.jp (M. Nishino). 0003–9969/$ — see front matter ß 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.archoralbio.2003.09.010