Korean J Orthod.  2005 Oct;35(5):341-350.

A comparative study of guiding methods for natural head posture in cephalometrics

• Song JM
• Lee KH
• Hwang HS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the degree of vertical head rotation and to evaluate the reproducibility of natural head posture (NHP) according to two guiding methods, the head posture aligner (HPA) method and the self balance posture (SBP) method. The subjects consisted of 30 adults. On the first day, lateral and frontal cephalometric radiographs were obtained through the two guiding methods. One month later, lateral and frontal cephalometric radiographs were obtained again through both guiding methods. The degrees of vertical head rotation of both guiding methods were compared and the reproducibility was evaluated for each guiding method. A comparison of the degrees of vertical head rotation for the two methods revealed that the vertical head posture was lower in the SBP method than in the HPA method by an average of 2.79 degrees. All measurements obtained using the HPA and SBP methods with a time interval of one month did not show any significant difference in lateral and frontal cephalometric radiographs. The results of the present study suggest that the SBP method may be used as an alternative to the HPA method in case the HPA method can not be applied.

Keyword

Natural head posture; Head posture aligner; Self balance posture; Reproducibility

MeSH Terms

Adult
Head*
Humans
Posture*