Introduction:

the time the tooth takes to emerge from the oral cavity until it reaches the occlusal plane has been little studied in Cuba.

Objective:

to determine the duration of temporary and permanent prefunctional clinical tooth eruption in Villa Clara population.

Methods:

a descriptive and epidemiological study was carried out from 2014 to 2018. A sample of 2,584 children and adolescents who were born in the province without alterations in general and craniofacial growth was obtained through simple random multistage sampling (520 between three months and four years for temporary dentition and 2,064 between four and 14 years for permanent one); the outbreak was observed; the mean ages for teeth eruption without occlusal contact and those that had reached occlusion were calculated by means of probit regression. The duration of the prefunctional clinical eruption was calculated by subtracting the medians of both variables.

Results:

prefunctional clinical eruption took longer in temporary (upper, 0.63 and lower, 0.62) 1st molars, as well as in permanent lower central incisors of men and women (1 and 1.07, respectively).

Conclusions:

prefunctional clinical eruption for permanent teeth ranged from four months to one year and for temporary ones between four and seven months presenting dental differences. A table of the duration of the prefunctional clinical eruption of temporary and permanent teeth was created according to Villa Clara population.