Background: Pulp stones are discrete calcified bodies found in the dental pulp. The aims of this study were to calculate the prevalence of pulp stones in young Australian adults using radiographs, and to report any associations between occurrence of pulp stones and sex, tooth type, dental arch, side and dental status. Methods: From 217 undergraduate dental students, comprising 123 males and 94 females aged between 17-35 years, 3296 teeth were examined under 2x magnification on bitewing radiographs. Pulp stones were scored as present or absent, and associations with sex, tooth type, dental arch, side and dental status noted. Results: Pulp stones were found in 100 (46.1 per cent) of the subjects and 333 (10.1 per cent) of the teeth examined. Occurrences were rare in premolars (0.4 per cent) but significantly higher in molars (19.7 per cent). Pulp stones were significantly more common in first molars than in second molars, and in maxillary first molars than in mandibular first molars. Carious and/or restored maxillary right first molars and maxillary left second molars displayed higher prevalences of pulp stones than unrestored and intact molars. Conclusion: Pulp stones may provide useful forensic information when examining dental records to identify deceased persons.Key words: Pulp tissue, calcification, dental arches, dental status.(Accepted for publication October 2000.) and the latter being degenerative pulp calcifications. Other studies have noted problems with the above classification and new histologic classifications have been proposed. [2][3][4]

Non-carious cervical lesions involve loss of hard tissue and, in some instances, restorative material at the cervical third of the crown and subjacent root surface, through processes unrelated to caries. These non-carious processes may include abrasion, corrosion and possibly abfraction, acting alone or in combination. Abfraction is thought to take place when excessive cyclic, non-axial tooth loading leads to cusp flexure and stress concentration in the vulnerable cervical region of teeth. Such stress is then believed to directly or indirectly contribute to the loss of cervical tooth substance. This article critically reviews the literature for and against the concept of abfraction.Although there is theoretical evidence in support of abfraction, predominantly from finite element analysis studies, caution is advised when interpreting results of these studies because of their limitations. In fact, there is only a small amount of experimental evidence for abfraction. Clinical studies have shown associations between abfraction lesions, bruxism and occlusal factors, such as premature contacts and wear facets, but these investigations do not confirm causal relationships. Importantly, abfraction lesions have not been reported in pre-contemporary populations.It is important that oral health professionals understand that abfraction is still a theoretical concept, as it is not backed up by appropriate clinical evidence. It is recommended that destructive, irreversible treatments aimed at treating so-called abfraction lesions, such as occlusal adjustment, be avoided.

Symmetry is a major correlate of physical attractiveness across species, including humans. Investigating the nature of this relationship has been difficult, however, for several reasons, including the facts that variance in symmetry is attributable to more than one source and is often correlated with other variables related to attractiveness. This study assessed the role of facial symmetry in relation to perceptions of facial attractiveness. Some of the natural covariates of symmetry were controlled for by comparing the symmetry and attractiveness differentials between monozygotic co-twins, who are genetically, but not developmentally, identical. The more symmetric twin of a pair was consistently rated as more attractive, and the magnitude of the difference between twins in perceived attractiveness was directly related to the magnitude of the difference in symmetry.

The clinical importance of variations of tooth number, size and shape is seen in many dental disciplines. Early diagnosis allows optimal patient management and treatment planning, with intervention at an appropriate time to prevent complications in development and so reduce later treatment need. Understanding the process of dental morphogenesis and the variations in outcomes is an important contribution to the multidisciplinary clinical team approach to treatment. Tooth number, size and shape are determined during the initiation and morphogenetic stages of odontogenesis. The molecular evidence of repetitive signalling throughout initiation and morphogenesis is reflected clinically in the association of anomalies of number, size and shape. This association has been statistically modelled from epidemiological evidence and confirmed by 2D and 3D measurement of human dental study casts. In individuals with hypodontia, the teeth that are formed are smaller than the population mean and often show reduced and simplified shape. In contrast, in individuals with supernumerary teeth, the other teeth are larger than average and may show an enhanced shape. Clinical observations in humans and studies of laboratory animals gave rise to the concept of morphogenetic fields within the dentition. The findings, which can also be considered as reflecting gene expression territories, have been developed to incorporate field, clone and homeobox theories. The clinical distribution of developmental anomalies tends to follow the pattern of these fields or territories. Improved care for patients with these anomalies will come not only from utilizing a multidisciplinary clinical team but also by expanding the approach to include other relevant scientific disciplines.

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Background: Published standards for permanent tooth emergence in Australian children are 40 years old. The aim of this study was to present new data on the timing and sequence of permanent tooth emergence in a large sample of Australian children and to compare the findings with those of earlier studies. Methods: Records of a randomly selected sample of 8676 children, aged between 4 to 16 years, who had attended the clinics of the South Australian Dental Service were scanned optically and coded to provide the data for this study. A logistic regression analysis enabled median times of emergence, together with percentile ranges, to be calculated for each tooth, except third molars, in boys and girls. Comparisons were made between the sexes and with previously published values. The frequencies of occurrence of emergence polymorphisms for different tooth pairs were also computed. Results:The earliest teeth to emerge in both boys and girls were the central incisors and first molars, whereas the second premolars and molars and maxillary canines tended to be last to emerge. The mandibular teeth tended to precede the corresponding maxillary teeth in emergence in both sexes. Tooth emergence was advanced in girls compared with boys, averaging 4.5 months in the maxilla and 5.3 months in the mandible. In general, emergence times of children in the present sample were later than those reported previously for Australian children. The most common emergence polymorphism in the maxilla involved the canine and second premolar, whereas common polymorphisms in the mandible were noted for the central incisor and first molar, canine and first premolar, and the second premolar and second molar. Conclusions: Given that they have been collected relatively recently from a large sample of children, the new data reported in this paper can now be used as standards when assessing permanent tooth emergence of Australian children.

Background:Comparisons between monozygotic (MZ) co-twins have tended to focus on the similarities between their dentitions rather than differences. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of discordant expression for simple hypodontia and supernumerary teeth in MZ twin pairs and to explain how phenotypic differences might occur despite their similar genotypes. Methods: Records of 278 pairs of MZ twins, including dental casts and radiographs, were examined and the prevalences of discordant expression for missing upper lateral incisors (ULI) or second premolars (PM2), and of mesiodentes, were determined. Zygosities were confirmed by comparisons of blood markers and DNA. Results: There was evidence of at least one missing ULI or PM2 in 24 of the 278 MZ pairs (8.6 per cent), with 21 of these 24 pairs (87.5 per cent) showing discordant expression. Nine of the 278 MZ pairs (3.2 per cent) displayed evidence of mesiodentes, with eight of these nine pairs (88.9 per cent) being discordant. Conclusion: Our findings show that differences in the expression of missing or extra teeth occur often between MZ co-twins whose genetic make-up predisposes them to simple hypodontia or mesiodentes. We postulate that minor variations in epigenetic events during odontogenesis may account for these distinct differences.Key words: Hypodontia, supernumerary teeth, twins, dental development.Abbreviations and acronyms: DZ = dizygotic; MZ = monozygotic; PM2 = second premolars; ULI = upper lateral incisors.(Accepted for publication 2 July 2004.) that environmental influences are the same in both groups, greater similarity between MZ twin pairs, who share the same genes, compared with DZ twin pairs, who only share half their genes on average, indicates that genetic factors are contributing to observed variation. Applications of this model to dental features have confirmed that there is a strong genetic contribution to variation in human dental morphology, 1 and so researchers and clinicians have often tended to focus on the dental similarities between MZ twin pairs rather than their differences. However, we have reported previously that MZ twin pairs can show quite different expressions of normal, small, pegshaped and missing maxillary incisors, despite having the same genetic make-up. 2 We have also reported on a pair of MZ twin boys who displayed different numbers of supernumerary teeth, one twin having a single supernumerary and the other having two.

Nocturnal clenching was monitored using a dedicated microprocessor, appropriate EMG amplification and digitisation. The hardware was located at the subject's bedside and the software provided for the real time recording of clenching bruxism, duration of the episode and the severity in electronic values. Forced clenches before retiring and on arousing provided maximal baseline data against which to compare the severity of sleeping clenches. All ten subjects tested were found to brux and two used intensities of effort while asleep that exceeded their maximal conscious clenches.