The dental midline at 13 year of age

الملخص EN

The dental midline was examined for seven thousand 13 year olds selected from six Iraqi governorates.

The intra-oral clinical examination assessed the presence of maxillary central diastema and any midline shift.

A maxillary central diastema of 1mm or more was found in 10.1 % of the sample with a mean of 0.127 ± 0.005mm ; being significantly more in Basrah, Najaf and Anbar.

However, a maxillary central diastema of 2mm or more was found in only 2.4 % of the sample.

Midline shift ( ≥ 1mm) was found in 44.8 % of the sample with a mean of 0.712 ± 0.011 mm (22.8 % to the right and 22.0 % to the left side).