Study of the dimensions of the lateral incisors and their involvement in anterior tooth-size discrepancy.

Tooth-size discrepancy (TSD), i.e. the disproportion between the size of the maxillary teeth and that of the mandibular teeth, impacts the quality of esthetic and occlusal results in orthodontic treatment. Various studies have shown that, in anterior TSDs, the deficit is most often maxillary and the small size of the upper lateral incisor is incriminated. The present study was performed on a sample of 30 moulds from Moroccan patients displaying an anterior TSD. The differences in the sizes of the upper and lower lateral incisors were compared with a control sample with normal occlusion. The aim of the study was to check the validity of similarity of size between the upper and the lower lateral incisors as a clinical sign of possible anterior TSD. Our results confirmed the efficacy of this rapidly detectable clinical sign in the diagnosis of anterior TSDs. Copyright (c) 2009 Collège Européen d'Orthodontie. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.