External root morphology of maxillary first premolars in Kenyan Africans.

View/ Open
Date
2009Author
Ng'ang'a, R N.
Masiga, M.A.
Maina, S. W.
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Objective: To determine the external root morphology of the maxillary first premolars in Kenyan Africans.
Design: In vitro descriptive cross-sectional study.
Setting: School of Dental Sciences, University of Nairobi.
Subjects: One hundred and fifty five extraded maxillary first premolar teeth obtained from patients aged between 13-30 years attending dental clinics within Nairobi. Main outcome measures: Number of roots, direction of root curvature and tooth
length.
Results: A total of 155 maxillary first premolars were studied, 77 from males and 78 from females. Overall, there were 83.2% two-rooted teeth (mean tooth length: buccal root 22.3 mro; lingual root 21.2 nun), 10.3% one-rooted (mean tooth length-22.6 mm) and 6.5% three-rooted. Three roots occurred more commonly in males than females and this was a statistically significant gender difference (P<O.05). Males were found to have larger mean tooth length than females in multirooted teeth. Majority of the roots were straight (57.2%). Distal and "S" curvatures were the commonest (19.1 % and 10.2% respectively). There were no significant gender differences in direction of root curvature (P>O.OS).
Conclusions: Maxillary first premolars were mostly two-rooted with straight roots. Males presented with two or three roots more often than females and had significantly larger mean tooth lengths.
Citation
East African Medicnl Journal Vol. 86 No. 12 December 2009Collections
- Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) [10227]