[The dental anthropological study on the erupted mesiodens in the Paiwan tribe of Formosan aborigines].

Mesiodens is one supernumerary tooth which appears in upper intra-central incisors. This tooth was originally described by Bolk (1917) who proposed the term 'mesiodens'. We investigated the incidence of mesiodens for the Paiwan tribe of Formosan aborigines (9 tribes) living in the mountain area of Taiwan. We have been continued to research on these tribes as viewed from dental anthropology. The materials used in this study were plaster casts of 152 males and 238 females (dental age: IIIA or over). The samples of the Paiwan tribe were selected from the dental casts obtained at Taitung and Pingtung (Machia and Wutai) in southern Taiwan. The results were as follows: 1. The occurrence of the erupted mesiodens in the upper incisal region was five cases (3.3%) in males, but was none in females. This tendency of incidence was much the same as that of Japanese. 2. The mesiodens was of rudimentary form: four cases (80%) showed conical-shaped type and the rest case was the sort of incisor. 3. In the incidence of the erupted mesiodens, the Paiwan tribe showed significantly higher than Japanese.