Introduction: Tooth eruption plays a significant role in estimating chronological age. However, tooth eruption and formation is affected by several factors including nutritional status. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the time, pattern of eruption of permanent teeth and effect of nutritional status on dentition in children.

Methodology: This was a secondary data analysis of a survey of two cities (Karachi and Peshawar) conducted between 2007 and 2017 to assess the time and eruption sequence of permanent teeth in Pakistani school going healthy children of age 4 to 15 years. Data on age, gender, permanent teeth erupted, height, weight and BMI were analyzed in this paper. Nutritional status was assessed using BMI reference charts (both local and WHO growth charts). BMI-for-age below 5th percentile was considered as under-weight whereas        BMI-for-age ranging from 5th to 85th percentile and above 85th percentile were deemed as nourished and over-weight, respectively.

Results: Girls were found to have early eruption time than boys though the eruption rate of permanent teeth was faster in boys. Moreover, eruption pattern was found to be different in both the genders. Additionally, a delayed eruption of permanent teeth was observed in under-weight children, whereas, over-weight children were found to have early eruption of permanent teeth in comparison to the nourished (normal) children. Partial or full eruption of molars was observed as early as 4 years. It was observed that 61-78% and 15-16% of the children age 4 to <5.5 years had second and first molars erupted.

Conclusion: Variability in the timing, rate and pattern of permanent dentition exists globally which is also reflected in our population providing evidence for establishing new standards for dental development and its relationship to the chronological age in our population. Moreover, under-weight children were found to have late eruption time while over-weight had early permanent dentition in comparison to healthy-weight (normal) children.

dentition, eruption time, eruption pattern, eruption rate, malnutrition.