Occlusal Morphological Variants of Permanent Mandibular Second Premolar - A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

BACKGROUND:  Dental identification is an important identification tool in forensic odontology. Permanent mandibular second premolars are generally included in the bicuspids . They are two types namely  two cusp and three cusp variants. There is a difference of opinion regarding whether ethnicity influences dental morphology or not.

AIM :To analyse and determine different occlusal morphological patterns of permanent mandibular second premolars in the chennai population.

MATERIALS AND METHOD : The present cross sectional study was conducted in April-May 2020. A total number of 100 participants were selected by convenient sampling predominantly among the chennai population. Oral photographs were examined for cusp number variations and groove patterns of permanent mandibular second premolars. The statistical tests used were descriptive tests for determining the frequency and chi square tests for gender comparison. Statistical software used was SPSS software. P value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant and the  confidence level was set at 95%.

RESULTS: The study revealed that the predominant cusp pattern was two cusp patterns(82%) and the predominant groove pattern was H shaped groove (61%). Among males, the predominant cusp and the groove pattern was bicuspids (41%) and H groove (33%).  Among females, the predominant cusp and groove pattern was two cusp (42%) and ‘H’ groove (29%).

CONCLUSION:  The predominant combination of cusp and groove pattern was 2 H​. It may be concluded that variation in degree of expression and frequency of permanent mandibular second premolars of different populations are different, which may help in personal and forensic identification.