Order and Age of Eruption for the Deciduous Dentition

Presently available research literature includes no less than a score of North American studies pertaining to the time and sequence of eruption of the primary or 'milk teeth. For only about one-sixth of these studies is the medium of original report a dental periodical, the remaining five-sixths are in anthropological, biological, child development, medical (mainly pediatric) and psychological publications. It is a major objective of this paper to bring together these widely scattered reports and make their contents more readily accessible to members of the dental profession. A second major objective of the paper is that of presenting an epitome of research knowledge concerning the age and order of eruption of deciduous teeth in North American children. This, of course, presupposes a systematic and comprehensive integration of the materials from different studies. The two objectives determine the two parts of the paper: The first-colligation-is carried out under the caption Presentation of Research Materials and the second-synthesis-under the caption Generalizations. There are incorporated in both parts the findings from two previously unpublished investigations.