Bolton Tooth Size Ratio among Sudanese Sample: a preliminary Study

Introduction: The study of crown size dimension, morphology of teeth and dental arch may play an important role in clinical Dentistry as well as other sciences such as forensic Dentistry and Anthropology. Objectives: The aims of the study were to establish tooth-size ratio in Sudanese sample with Class 1 normal occlusion, to compare tooth-size ratio between the present study and Bolton’s study and between genders. Methods: dental casts of 60 subjects (30 males and 30 females) were used. The age range was 15 to 19 years. All subjects had normal Class1 occlusion, with no history of orthodontic treatment. Bolton formula was used to compute the overall and anterior ratio; Student’s t- test was used to compare tooth-size ratios between the males and females, and between the present study and the Bolton study. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was computed between the anterior ratio and overall ratio. Results:  it indicated that there were no statistically significant differences between the mean values of the anterior ratio and the overall ratio between the males and females. The present study result was slightly similar to the mean values reported by Bolton. With a high correlation between the anterior ratio and the overall ratio (r = +0.79).  Conclusions:  The result obtained was belonging to the Caucasian race. However, the reality indicates that the Sudanese population consisted of different racial groups; therefore firm conclusion is difficult to draw. Since this sample is not representative for the Sudanese population, hence, a further study with a large sample collected from the different parts of the Sudan is required.