ON INHERITANCE OF PERMANENT TEETH CROWN SIZE IN A MIDDLE-EASTERN POPULATION

Among a group of fifty Egyptian families that comprised 200 individual s (99 males and 101 females), the mesiodistal and buccolingual crown d iameters for each tooth (except the third molar) were measured. Both d imensions showed evident sex differences in all teeth; however, the ca nines demonstrated the highest level of sexual dimorphism. Intra-famil ial correlations were computed in ten pairs. Mid parent offspring corr elations showed the highest level of significance. In addition, the li ke-sexed correlations (particularly among females) were of higher sign ificance than the different-sexed correlations. Our results suggest th at autosomal additive genes play an important role in tooth size trans mission. It is likely that sex-linked genes as well as non-genetic fac tors are also among the major determinants of tooth crown size.