A biometric approach to diagnosis and management of morphological changes in the dental structure

Abstract

Clinical examinations, biometric studies of jaw diagnostic models and cone-beam computed tomography were performed involving 104 people in their first adult period with a full set of permanent teeth, the physiological occlusion and the mesognathic type of dental arches. Clinical and X-ray-morphometric explanation of the proportional parameters of the dental and alveolar triangles, taking into account the medial incisors individual position, allowed us developing, substantiating and testing a biometric diagnostic approach to treat morphological changes in the dental structure. Patients, depending on the interincisal angle, featured the mesotrusion type (interincisal angle, 130 degrees-140 degrees), the protrusion type (interincisal angle below 129 degrees) and the retrusion type of the dental arches (interincisal angle above 141 degrees). The study revealed that the distance between the central points of the dental and alveolar triangles on both jaws could be described with the trusion type of arches. The smallest distance between the peaks of the dental and alveolar triangles was to be observed in people with the retrusion type of the arches and microdontia (upper jaw, 1.5 +/- 0.07 mm; lower jaw, 0.5 +/- 0.02 mm); the average value was recorded in patients with the mesotrusion type and normodontia (upper jaw, 2.5 +/- 0.06 mm; lower jaw, 1.5 +/- 0.05 mm); the maximum distance was observed in people with the protrusion type of the arches and macrodontia (upper jaw, 3.5 +/- 0.08 mm; lower jaw, 2.5 +/- 0.07 mm). The morphometric data interpretation can be used to describe the physiological occlusion, when choosing the tactics and the methods of orthodontic treatment for patients with disturbed shape and size of the dental arches, as well as when designing artificial dental arches for patients with full or partial adentia, thus seeking to achieve a balanced articulation balance