title: Ethnic Association of Cusp of Carabelli Trait and Shoveling Trait in an Indian Population.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Variations in the structure of teeth have always been of great interest to the dentist from the scientific as well as practical point of view. Additionally, ever since decades inter trait relationships have been a useful means to categorize populations to which an individual belongs.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the association between Cusp of Carabelli and Shoveling Trait in a selected Indian population native of Bangalore city, Karnataka, India.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study was carried out in 1885 children aged between 7-10 years. Casts of the study subjects were made to study the presence of Cusp of Carabelli of right maxillary permanent molar and shoveling trait of right maxillary permanent central incisor using the Dahlberg's classification and Hrdliucka's classification respectively. Linear regression was used to assess the association of cusp of carabelli trait with the tooth dimensions and logistic regression was used to evaluate the association of the carabelli trait with gender and presence/absence of shoveling.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A 40.5% of subjects had Cusp of Carabelli on first molar and 68.2% had shoveling on upper central incisor. The study revealed positive association between the two traits studied in the population. A significant difference was also found with presence of Cusp of Carabelli and the buccolingual tooth dimension of the maxillary molar (p<0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is an association between the Cusp of Carabelli and the shoveling trait in the present study population, and this will be valuable in the determination of ethnic origin of an individual.
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Indira Gandhi Institute of Dental Sciences , Puducherry, India .
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kirthiga
authors.affiliation: Reader, Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Syamala Reddy Dental College , Banglore, Karnataka, India .
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Manju
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Indira Gandhi Institute of Dental Sciences , Puducherry, India .
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Praveen
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry, Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University Dental College , Pune, India .
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Umesh
keywords: Children; Ethnic group; Forensic sciences; Incisor; Molar