The relation of anterior and lateral cranial base lengths with mandibular morphology and facial heights

الملخص EN

Background: The cranial base is important in integrated craniofacial development and growth-especially the anterior cranial base, which has direct connections with the upper-middle face and integrates with the facial elements into a growth complex (ethmomaxillary complex).

The aim of this retrospective cephalometric study is to find the relation between anterior (S-N) and lateral (S-Ar) cranial base lengths with mandibular morphology and facial heights.

Materials and method: The sample included 153 pretreatment digital lateral cephalometric radiographs of Iraqi orthodontic patients who attend the Department of Orthodontics in the College of Dentistry-University of Baghdad.

The sample divided according to the ANB angle into skeletal Cl I (40 females and 35 males), and Cl II (40 females and 38 males).

Nine linear measurements were digitized and recorded using AutoCAD 2007 computer program, the data then analysed by SPSS version 15.00 computerized statistical analysis.

Results: Males had higher mean values for anterior and lateral cranial base lengths than females, with no significant difference between classes.

Mandibular morphology and anterior facial heights positively correlated with anterior cranial base especially in males.

Lateral cranial base positively correlated with posterior facial height in males and females, and with mandibular body length and total mandibular length in males.

Conclusions: The effect of gender was greater than the effect of skeletal classes for the anterior and lateral cranial base lengths.

Anterior cranial base was mainly positively correlated with anterior facial heights in both genders, while lateral cranial base mostly correlated with posterior facial height.

Keywords: Anterior cranial base, mandibular morphology, facial heights (J Bagh Coll Dentistry 2008; 20(2):88-92)