Lateral cephalometric diagnosis of asymmetry in different types of skeletal maloclussion

Introduction: Asymmetry when applied to facial morphology refers to the correspondence difference in the size, shape and location of facial landmarks on opposite sides of the median sagittal plane. Malocclusion cases with their asymmetric occlusal relationships often cause treatment difficulties. The nature of occlusal asymmetry may be due to dentoalveolar or skeletal asymmetries, or due to a combination of both these factors and these underlying factors complicate the attainment of a symmetric occlusion. Objective: The objective of the study was to use lateral cephalometric radiographs to evaluate skeletal and dental asymmetries in Class I, Class II and Class III malocclusions. Materials and Method: Seventy -four initial lateral cephalometric radiographs were randomly divided into three groups: Group I (30 Class I lateral cephalometric radiographs), Group II (30 Class II lateral cephalometric radiographs) and Group III (14 Class III lateral cephalometric radiographs). Analysis of lateral cephalometric radiographs included angular measurements, horizontal linear measurements and two indexes of asymmetry that were prepared for the study. Result: To test the hypothesis that the mean angular measurements were equivalent for the three groups an analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used and statistically significant correlation was found(p<0.05).A chi-square test was used to test the proportion of individuals and dental symmetry was more statistically significant in Group1 and Group2 than in Group 3. Conclusion: Dental and skeletal asymmetry was found to be greater in Skeletal Class III and Skeletal Class II malocclusion than Skeletal class I malocclusion.