AIM: the purpose of this cross-sectional study was to verify the prevalences of different types of anteroposterior relationships between deciduous dental arches and its possible sexual dimorphism, in Japanese-Brazilian children from 2 to 6 years of age. METHODS: a total of 310 Japanese-Brazilian children from 19 schools in São Paulo, Brazil, comprising 154 males and 156 females, were examined by visual inspection. The qui-square statistical test was applied to evaluate the data, and the results revealed no statistically significant sexual dimorphism for the majority of types of anteroposterior relationship. Therefore, the results for both genders were grouped together. RESULTS: the prevalences of anteroposterior relationships between deciduous second molars were: mesial step, 47.4%; flush terminal plane, 41.3%; distal step, 5.5% and asymmetric cases, 5.8%. The prevalences of anteroposterior relationship of deciduous canines were: Class 1, 77.4%; Class 2, 6.8%; Class 3, 6.8% and asymmetric cases, 9%. Only Class 2 revealed sexual dimorphism: 3.9% for female and 9.7% for male. The prevalences of overjet, were: normal, 71.3%; increased, 14.2%; anterior cross-bite, 7.4% and edge-to-edge bite, 7.1%. CONCLUSION: it was concluded that the majority of Japanese-Brazilian children evaluated in this study showed normal anteriorposterior relationship between dental arches, with a slightly tendency for the development of Class 3.
Dentition primary; Dental occlusion; Pedodontics; Orthodontics
