%0 Journal Article %T Denti£¿£¿o dec¨ªdua: estudo da preval¨ºncia dos espa£¿os interproximais em crian£¿as brasileiras %A SOVIERO %A Vera Mendes %A BASTOS %A Eliana Pinheiro dos Santos %A SOUZA %A Ivete Pomarico Ribeiro de %J Revista de Odontologia da Universidade de S£¿o Paulo %D 1999 %I Scientific Electronic Library Online %R 10.1590/S0103-06631999000200010 %X for the purpose of ascertaining more information about the characteristics of deciduous dentition presented by the brazilian children, a prevalence study was performed. four hundred children with complete deciduous dentitions and age ranging from 2 to 6 years, were examined in petr¨®polis - rj - brazil. the type i arch was the most prevalent in the upper arch (93.2%) and in the lower arch (90.5%). the type ii upper arch was more common in the females (p < 0.01). the primate spaces were the most frequent spaces found in both arches. the association between the presence of interdental spaces and age was statistically significant (p < 0.05), suggesting that there is a tendency for the spaces to close with age. %K primary dentition %K dental occlusion %K preschool child %K child. %U http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0103-06631999000200010&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en