Prevalence of Morphological Variations in The Occlusal Aspect of Mandibular Second Premolar

Background: Mandibular second premolar is the successor of the deciduous mandibular second molar and is the fifth tooth from the midline. It often occurs in two morphological forms, two cusps and tricuspidata three cusps. Premolars are divided into 2 types namely bicuspid and tricuspid premolars. There are three variant occlusal groove patterns. Y shape pattern is associated with three cusps types and U shape and H shape patterns are associated with two cusps types. Aim: To determine the prevalence of morphological variations in the occlusal aspect of mandibular second premolar. Materials and methods: Cross sectional study was carried among 100 participants belonging to the Chennai population. Participants with fully erupted healthy mandibular second premolar on both the left and right side were included in the study. Dat was collected and tabulated in microsoft excel. Data was then exported to SPSS for appropriate statistical analysis. Results: The most predominant pattern was Y followed by H. On the left mandibular second premolar Y - pattern was predominant, whereas on the right side it was the H pattern. Conclusion: Within the limitations of the study we can conclude that Y pattern is the most common occlusal groove pattern in mandibular second premolar among Chennai population. Y pattern is most common on the right side and H among the left side. However the results are not in consensus with other population groups. This has opened the eye for a need to understand the interethnic and inter region variability of the occlusal morphology of mandibular second premolar.