Abstract
Dental anatomy is the study of morphology of various teeth in human dentitions. The application of dental anatomy in clinical practice is important, and dentist should have a thorough knowledge regarding the morphology of the teeth. At times as a result of genetic variation, environmental factors, diet of an individual and race, variations in the morphology of the teeth can be observed. These variations have been extensively studied by the researcher in the field of anthropology to define a particular race. The most commonly observed changes include peg-shaped laterals, shovel-shaped incisors, and extra cusp on molar. Common variations documented with regard to maxillary and mandibular first premolars are the variation in the number of roots. But the variations with respect to crown morphology are few. We report a first documented unusual presentation of maxillary and mandibular first premolars with three-cusps pattern in a female patient.
Highlights
Dental anthropology is the study of the origin and variations in the human dentitions
The commonest morphological variations described in dental anatomy include presence of shovel-shaped maxillary central incisor, peg-shaped maxillary lateral incisor, accessory cusp on the maxillary first permanent molar, additional cusp on the mandibular second premolar giving a total of four cusps to the tooth, reduced size or absence of a distopalatal cusp on the maxillary second molar [4]
Knowing some common variations occurring in tooth morphology about each individual tooth can help in performing dental treatment and can be used for anthropological research for identification of population [2]
Summary
Dental anthropology is the study of the origin and variations in the human dentitions. Maxillary first premolars are described morphologically as showing two cusps and two roots, whereas the mandibular first premolars shows presence of two cusps and one root, with lingual cusp being rudimentary in most cases Superimposed on these basic shapes of teeth are minor morphological variations that affect both deciduous and permanent teeth [3, 4]. Brabant et al noted increased buccolingual dimension of maxillary first premolars due to the presence of supernumerary cusp on the buccal surface of the paracone [6]. Apart from these reports which were documented in late 1960s, no other cases have been documented reporting variation in the crown morphology of maxillary first premolar. In this paper we report first unusual case showing three cusp crown pattern in the maxillary and mandibular first premolars in a female patient
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