An Airway Study Of Different Skeletal Patterens In Adolescence Using Cone-beam Computed Tomography

Objective: To investigate the differences of three dimensional pharyngeal airwaymorphology and volume in adolescence with different sagittal and vertical facial tapes.Methods: Seventy five malocclusion patients (35males and40female, age10-14years) having pre-treatment cone-beam computed tomography images and completemedical records were selected.The patients were divided into two groups by sagittal andvertical facial type.Subgroup of the patients were divided into three groups of sagittal orvertical skeletal facial type according to the ANB angle or the SN-MP angle.Pharyngealairway volume,height,minimum cross-section area of each patient were measured withInvivoDental5.1software,single factor variance analysis was used to compare thedifferences of three groups airway morphology and size in SPSS17.0software package.Results:1Pharyngeal airway volume,height,minmum cross-section area vary amongpatients with different sagittal facial type,volume and minmum cross-section bothgradually become samller with the increase of ANB angle,while height graduallybecome larger as ANB angle increaed.2Differences in the pharyhged airway were no statistically significant between thethree groups of vertical facial type.Conclusion: Skeletal Class II patients often had long and narrow pharyngealairway,whereas skeletal Class III patients had a more wide and short airway.