Crown shape of maxillary molars with delayed eruption.

The purpose of this study was to explore the crown shapes of maxillary molars with delayed eruption (DEMo1) at the position distal to the maxillary second premolar. Included teeth erupted later than the average for the maxillary first molar eruption in Japanese females (6.58 ± 0.67 years) by more than two standard deviations. Crown shapes of 12 four-cusped left DEMo1 teeth were compared with those of 25 four-cusped left maxillary first molars (U6n) and 25 four-cusped left maxillary second molars (U7n) from different patients with normal eruption. Seven landmarks were established on the reference plane containing the mesiobuccal, distobuccal and mesiolingual cusp tips of the molars; the origin was defined as the center of gravity of these three points. According to the obtained discriminant function (percentage of correct classifications, 84%), five DEMo1 teeth were classified as U6n and the other seven as U7n. The DEMo1 teeth were also classified into two subgroups, the U6n-close and U7n-close groups, according to the location of the distolingual cusp tip. These results suggest that DEMo1 teeth could include U6 and U7 with delayed eruption or could be an intermediate between U6 and U7, according to their crown shapes.