A longitudinal study on three facial growth patterns in Koreans with normal occlusion

Park, Kyung Duk; Sung, Jae Hyun

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the difference of the growth aspects in three facial growth patterns. The biennial serial cephalometric radiographs of 33 samples (19 males, 14 females) with normal occlusion from 8.5 years to 18.5 years of age were used in this study. The facial growth pattern was categorized in 3 types (Drop type, Neutral type, Forward type) by the total amounts of the Y-axis which changed from 8.5years to 18.5 years of age. The growth change of the craniofacial area during 10 years in each growth type was analyzed and was compared among the 3 growth types. The results of this study might be summarized as follows: 1. The samples that were classified by total change of the Y-axis during this study period were distributed to 52% of the neutral type, 27% of the forward type, 21% of the drop type. 2. The anterior growth of the maxilla to the cranial base(N per A) showed larger in the forward type than in other 2 types(p<0.05). 3. The palatal plane to the FH plane showed more anterior-superior inclination in the forward type with age during this study period. 4. The anterior growth of the mandible to the cranial base(N per Pog) appeared large in rank order, of largest the forward type, second the neutral type, and third the drop type(p<0.05). 5. During this study period the mandibular plane(SN/Mn, FMA) showed more counterclockwise rotation in the forward type than in the drop type(p<0.05), and this tendency was stronger in males than in females(p<0.05). 6. The growth of the mandibular corpus length(Go-Me) showed smaller in the drop type than in the other 2 types(p<0.05). 7. In the forward type and the neutral type, the anterior growth of the mandible was larger than that of the maxilla(p<0.05). 8. In the craniofacial growth, distances and angulations turned out to be somewhat variable, but the vertical proportion had a strong tendency whose original relation was maintained consistently during this study period. 9. Through these analyzed data, the profilograms on each growth type were constructed to evaluate individual growth pattern in the orthodontic diagnosis.