Ethnic dental analysis of shovel and Carabelli's traits in a Chinese population

Chinese populations differ from Caucasoids by having a high prevalence of s hovel trait and a low prevalence of Carabelli's trait. This study was condu cted to investigate the association between the shovel and the Carabelli's traits in a Chinese population. The research design investigated a Chinese population that resides in southern Taiwan. The ancestors of this Chinese p opulation migrated to Taiwan from mainland China, mainly from Fukien and Kw angtung. The effects of sex and age on Carabelli's trait were controlled in this investigation, as was the association between tooth size and Carabell i's trait. Results show that males were more likely to have Carabelli's tra it expressed on teeth than females. The buccolingual diameter of Carabelli' s trait teeth was larger than that of teeth without the trait. After contro lling for sex, age, and tooth size, the existence of the shovel trait incre ased the likelihood of having Carabelli's trait by a factor of five and a h alf, which is a significant effect.