Difference in the incidence of the second mesiobuccal canal between Caucasian and Malaysian maxillary first molars

Objective: The purpose was to first identify if there was a difference between the root canal morphology of maxillary first molars of Malaysians and Caucasians by using horizontal sectioning. Secondly, it was to see if there was a difference between the root canal morphology of maxillary first molars of Malaysians and other Eastern Asian populations found in the literature. Methods: Extracted maxillary first molars were collected from a Caucasian population (n = 133) and a Malaysian population (n = 139). The mesiobuccal root was horizontally sectioned. Data was taken from the apex, 1 mm coronal to the apex, the apical one third of the root, the apical middle twothirds of the root, and the apical five-sixths of the root. Canal configuration was classified according to Vertucci's classification. Results: The greatest difference between the two populations was that of Type 1 (Caucasians: 42.86%, Malaysians: 34.56%) and Type 3 (Caucasians: 3.76%, Malaysians: 7.35%). No statistical difference was found when comparing each Vertucci type between Caucasians and Malaysians (P = 0.799). The total percentage of two mesiobuccal canals was 57.14% for Caucasians and 65.44% for Malaysians. No statistical difference was found (P = 0.171). No statistical difference was found between the total percentage of two mesiobuccal canals between Malaysians and findings in previous literature (P > 0.05). Conclusion: There was no statistically significant difference between the incidence of the second mesiobuccal canal of maxillary first molars of Caucasian, Malaysian and other Eastern Asian populations. Keywords: canal configuration, cross section, Malaysian, maxillary first molar, mesiobuccal canal, root canal anatomy