A secondary analysis to determine variations of dental arch measurements with age and gender among Ugandans

BACKGROUND: Dental arch dimensions are useful in dental practice and in forensic odontology. Local data is essential because ethnic differences exist in dental arch dimensions. In the Ugandan population no studies had been done on dental arch dimensions. The objective of the current study was to determine the variations in dental arch dimensions with age and gender in a sample of dental casts from the Ugandan population. METHOD: This was a secondary analysis of dental casts previously prepared using mandibular and maxillary arch impressions of 220 children (85 boys and 135 girls) aged 12–17 years recruited from schools in Kampala, Uganda. Dental arch dimensions for the maxilla and mandibular casts were taken using a digital vernier calliper. The data was analysed using the means based independent samples t test to obtain the descriptive statistics with regression analysis being used to obtain the regression coefficients and constants using STATA 12. RESULTS: The overall maxillary dimensions were significantly smaller in females than males by 1.50 mm (95 % CI −2.91 to −0.09, P = 0.04), controlling for age group. The overall dimensions of the mandible were also smaller in younger participants, though this was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: From this study we observed significant differences in arch dimensions between males and females that are of forensic value for this population. There is need for more study of the differences in arch dimensions with age using a larger and more age diverse study population.