A study on correlationship between craniofacial growth pattern and symphysis morphology

Nam, Hyun Jin; Ryu, Young Kyu

Abstract

Craniofacial growth pattern is an important diagnostic data in the course of orthodontic diagnosis and treatment planning ; it also has great influence in the establishment of occlusion as well as shaping and development of face. There have been many studies to classify different craniofacial growth patterns and attempts to predict growth patterns. This study aimed to correlate craniofacial growth pattern and symphysis morphology. 120 adult patients with age from 19 to 39 (mean age: 23.1) were chosen as subjects ; using lateral cephalometric films. their anterior to posterior facial height ratios were calculated. They were divided into 3 groupzs - clockwise growth pattern with 56%-62%(36subjects), counter-clockwise growth pattern group with 65%-80%(43subjects) and normal growth pattern group with 62%-65%(41subjects). Symphysis morphology and prominence evaluation in each subject were studied and the following conclusions were drawn: 1. In comparison of symphysis morphology between the sex groups, men showed large symphysis height and prominence. 2. Concerning the symphysis morphology, the clockwise growth pattern group showed larger height, H/D ratio and actual length but smaller depth, angle, effective length and E/A ratio compared to the counter-clockwise growth pattern group. 3. Those with smaller prominance of symphysis showed clockwise growth tendency and those with larger pro-minance showed counter-clockwise growth tendency.