[Morphological studies on the dental arch and palate of the Chinese in Fukien Province, Taiwan, using Moiré patterns].

Using Moiré topography, the forms of the dental arch and palate of males and females were compared. This was carried out in Fukien province, Taiwan. The materials used consisted of plaster casts of the upper dentitions of 65 males and 69 females with normal occlusion, aged from 20 to 22 years. The results are as follows: 1. The standard form of the upper dental arch represented by a pentagon is shown in Table 1 and in Fig. 3. 2. The dental arch of the male was larger than that of the female, the difference being significant for the anterior and posterior widths of the arch. 3. The correlation coefficients were generally lower in the female than in the male. This was especially true with regard to the size of the anterior portion of the female dental arch. In the posterior portion, there was no correlation between the dental arch length and dental arch width of either sex. 4. The distance from the origin (F) to the papilla incisiva was 23.47 mm in the male and 23.67 mm in the female. The number of moiré band in the bottom of the palate at the origin from the basal plane was 12.89 in the male and 12.73 in the female. There were no significant differences in these two measurements between sexes. 5. On the vertical section of the palate, the anterior portion of the palate of the female was deeper than the male. However, in the posterior portion the male was deeper and wider in the palate morphology than the female. The vertical section in the palate of the male was similar in form to that of the female at the midpoint between the anterior and posterior portions, the canine and/or first premolar. 6. The horizontal section of the palate showed that the distance from the origin to the canine and/or to the first premolar were similar in both sexes at any palate depth.