Height, weight and the number of erupted permanent teeth among 6-16 years old children in Sulaimani City

Abstract

Objectives: This study was conducted in order to evaluate the influence of gender, weight, and height on number of permanent teeth emerged among 6-16 years age group children in Sulaimani city. Material and Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out among randomly selected primary school in Sulaimani city including an oral clinical examination, and weight and height measurements. All measurements were carried out following standardized guidelines. Missing teeth due to extraction were counted as erupted and other cases were excluded from the study if missing of teeth were not approved to be due to tooth extraction. Results: A total of 1125 children aged 6-16 years were recruited for the study. The overall mean age of the children was 10.7 ± 2.8 years (boys, 10.6 ± 2.6; girls, 10.9 ± 3.0). Females showed higher number of erupted teeth than males by an average of about 1.4 teeth/ child and the total number of erupted teeth was 18.2 teeth/ child in the total sample. Partial correlation coefficient of total numbers of erupted teeth was positively significant with weight in both males and females and was significant with height among females only. The partial correlation results of the eruption (presence) of individual teeth with height and weight were mixed as; all incisor teeth showed no significant relation, but the teeth number 17, 15, 13, and 47 showed positive significant correlation with height and weight. Conclusions: The mean total number of erupted teeth per child increased with age and the mean total number of erupted teeth was higher in females than males. The influence of weight on the number of erupted teeth was obvious among both males and females, while the height of the child showed a significant influence on the number of erupted teeth only among females. Furthermore, the influences of height and weight on the eruption of individual teeth were inconclusive.