Dental morphology and odontometry of the Tibetan immigrants

Abstract

Dental features such as size, shape, cusp number and groove pattern, deflecting wrinkle, protostylid, form and size of dental arch and occlusion pattern, as well as crown diameters of maxillary and mandibular dentition of the Tibetan immigrants in India are described. Sex differences in various measurements are also noted. Overall reduction in size, presence of hypodontia of the third molar, and absence of Carabelli's trait are a distinct progressive/evolutionary trend in the Tibetan dentition, while presence of a shovel-shaped lingual surface of central and lateral incisors is a retrogressive/primitive condition. In some of the dental features Tibetans resemble Cauca-soid and modern populations, in certain others they resemble other Mongoloid populations, and in still other features they resemble aboriginal populations and fossil hominids.