title: Biometric study of furcation area of first maxillary molars.
abstract: The present investigation was designed to study the distance from the 3 bifurcation entrances to their opposite roots, and also the virtual center of the trifurcation (TC), which is equidistant from each bifurcation entrance, of maxillary molars. Thirty-five teeth devoid of any surface damage or fused roots were selected. Roots were included in acrylic resin and cross-sectioned at the cementoenamel junction to the apex using a rotary diamond blade and 0.45-mm slices were obtained. A profile projector apparatus was used to obtain the coordinated points on a Cartesian plane, which allowed the calculation of all distances present using analytic geometric formulas. Based on statistical analysis (comparison by Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA test, p<0.05), the following results were obtained: 1) mean distance from the buccal furcation reaching the palatal root was 6.72 +/- 0.99 mm (range 4.73-8.67 mm); 2) mean distance from the mesial and distal furcations to the distal and mesial roots were 5.42 +/- 0.83 mm (range 3.78-7.07 mm) and 5.90 +/- 0.87 mm (range 4.18-7.59 mm), respectively. All means were determined up to the point of 1.40 mm from each bifurcation opening; 3) mean distance of TC was 4.26 +/- 0.42 mm (range 3.44-5.08 mm) for all levels.
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontics, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. garomito@usp.br
authors.forename: Giuseppe Alexandre
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Romito
authors.forename: Francisco Emílio
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Pustiglioni
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D006801:Humans; D008437:Maxilla; D008963:Molar / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D009811:Odontometry / Q000379:methods*; D012016:Reference Values; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014092:Tooth Root / Q000033:anatomy & histology*