Validity Of Pont’s Index Application On Both Chinese And Egyptian Populations

Correlation between tooth size and dental arch size plays an important rulein Orthodontic problems. Many indices were done by various researchers.One of those researchers is Pont who determined a method for the idealdental arch width prediction which has become known as Pont’s index.The aim of this study is to determine whether Pont’s index could be appliedon both Chinese and Egyptian populations or not and to compare the resultswith those calculated from other studies of different ethnic groups. ASample of53dental subjects were collected from Tongji hospital in Wuhan,China with age ranges from14to21years old and another sample of53dental subjects were collected from Cairo university Hospital in Cairo,Egypt and with age ranges from16to23years old.Measurements were determined directly from plaster casts including(mesiodistal width of the four maxillary incisors, interpremolar andintermolar maxillary arch width as stated by Pont). Correlation Coefficientscalculated between the measured interpremolar width and the calculated oneaccording to Pont’s index and measured intermolar width and the calculatedone according to Pont’s index were low in both Chinese(r values:0.096and0.12) and Egyptian(r values:0.013and0.21) Samples.It was concluded that Pont’s index could not be applied to determine theideal arch width values in both Chinese and Egyptian Populations.