Taurodontism in a central anatolian population

Abstract

The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the frequency of the occurrence of taurodontismin a Turkish population with using panoromic radiographs. A retrospective study was performedusing full-mouth periapical and panoramic radiographs of 6912 patients (3860 females and3052 males) ranging in age from 15 to 50. A total of 97362 posterior (including third molars) wereevaluated. A chi-square test was used to determine the difference in the prevalence of tauorodntismbetween genders. Eighteen patients were found to have a taurodont molar (10 women and8 men [P = 0.98]). The overall incidence of patients with taurodont molars was 0.26 % and theprevalence of taurodont molars from all teeth examined was 0.024%, and the prevalence taurodontswere significantly more common in the mandibula compared with the maxilla (71.0% cf 29.0%respectively, P < 0.05). It was almost equally distributed between males and females. Taurodontismis not uncommon in Turkish population but further larger scale studies are required to assess itsprevalence in the general population to compare it with other ethnic groups.

Key Words:Prevalance, taurodontism, Turkish