A cross sectional survey to determine the age of emergence of permanent teeth of Caucasian children of the Colchester area of the UK

Abstract

There is a general assumption that permanent teeth in children are emerging into the oral cavity earlier than the dates given in published scientific studies conducted many years ago. In the course of this research a rigorous experimental protocol was devised to provide reliable data collection and analysis methods and give contemporary emergence rate estimations with a strong scientific basis. In addition equations are presented to predict the chronological age of children using only the sex of the child and the number of permanent teeth present. Data was collected between April 1998 and July 2001 from 12,395 children between 4 and 15 years of age, in the Colchester area of the UK. The results show that the ages of emergence of the permanent teeth are later than previously assumed. This research also confirms previous research showing that girl's teeth emerge before boy's teeth, that there is no statistical difference in the age of emergence contra-lateral teeth in the same arch and that there is a statistical difference in the age of emergence of ipsi-lateral teeth in opposing arches.