Tooth mineralization standards for blacks and whites from the middle southern United States

Normative standards are provided for permanent tooth mineralization stages for blacks and whites of the middle southern United States. The data cover tooth development from 3.5 to 13 years of age. Females develop more rapidly than males, and blacks are nearly twice as sexually dimorphic (7.2%) as whites (3.7%). Within each sex, blacks achieve mineralization stages significantly earlier, by about 5%, than whites. This complements earlier findings that teeth erupt at appreciably earlier mean ages in blacks.