title: A controlled study of the morphometric changes in the primary dentition of pre-term, very-low-birthweight children.
abstract: The aim of the present investigation was to compare the dimensions of the primary incisors from pre-term children and full-term controls. One hundred and eleven pre-term children, consisting of 86 very-low-birthweight (< 1,500 g), 25 low-birthweight (from 1,500 to 2,500 g), and 169 full-term, normal-birthweight (> 2,500 g) children, donated a total of 572 maxillary and mandibular primary central and lateral incisors for study. The teeth were measured by means of a digital micrometer. The results showed that there was a dose-response effect of birthweight on tooth size. The very-low-birthweight teeth showed the smallest dimensions, the normal-birthweight controls the largest, and the low-birthweight teeth intermediate dimensions (p < 0.001). In the maxillary primary central and lateral incisors, and the mandibular primary central incisors, very-low-birthweight teeth were from 6 to 11% smaller in both mesiodistal and faciolingual dimensions compared with normal-birthweight teeth (p < 0.001). The largest differences were observed in the maxillary lateral incisors, where mean decreases of 0.58 +/- 0.45 mm in mesiodistal and 0.50 +/- 0.40 mm in faciolingual dimensions (11% reduction in both measurements) were observed. In addition, in the mandibular and maxillary lateral incisors of very-low-birthweight children, the left-sided teeth were significantly smaller than those on the right side in both mesiodistal and faciolingual dimensions (p < 0.03).
authors.affiliation: School of Dentistry, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. k.seow@mailbox.uq.edu.au
authors.forename: W K
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Seow
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wan
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007180:Incisor / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight; D008297:Male; D008334:Mandible; D008437:Maxilla; D009811:Odontometry / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014094:Tooth, Deciduous