Experimental Study Of The Cranial Base In Subjects With Different Craniofacial Morphology

The abnormality of the craniofacial morphology is the main reason of malocclusion. Cranial base, as one part of the craniofacial complex, attracts lots of attention of the orthodontists about whether it could lead to the formation of malocclusion or not. After Bjork found the influence of cranial base on malocclusion by Conventional cephalometrics analysis(CCA) in 1955, some researchers explored the relationship between cranial base and malocclusion, however they got different results. At present CCA is wildly used but far from desirable. With the rapid development of mathematics, computer, and image manipulation technology, a brand new method —Geometric Morphometrics Analysis (GMA) is emerging. In this study, the lateral cephalograms of the children with skeletal Class I, Class II and Class III malocclusion were observed. GMA and CCA were adopted to investigate the cranial base morphology of the children with different skeletal malocclusion. This study would provide reference to the prediction, diagnosis, and prognosis of malocclusion. In addition, the comparison between the two methods could help the further study in the field of craniofacial morphology.