Original Articles
A longitudinal cephalometric study of transverse and vertical craniofacial growth

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Abstract

Longitudinal growth changes were studied from posteroanterior cephalometric radiographs of 25 male subjects from 4 to 25 years of age and 25 female subjects from 4 to 20 years of age who had Class I skeletal and dental patterns. Growth for males continued past age 18 years for all skeletal measurements, except for maxillary width. Growth for females was completed by 17 years for all skeletal measurements. At 6 years of age the transverse measurements had a greater percentage of the adult size completed than vertical measurements for both males and females. Gender differences at age 6 years were in the mean widths for the cranium, face, and maxilla. At age 12 years the differences were in cranial width, maxillary width, and maxillary and mandibular intermolar width (6-6). There were gender differences at age 18 years for all the variables, except for nasal width and mandibular intermolar width (6-6). Regression lines provided strong-to-moderate predictive equations to determine the size of most of the measurements at age 18 years, if the value at age 6 years is known. (AM J ORTHOD DENTOFAC ORTHOP 1993;104:471-83.)

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Materials and methods

This research utilized the longitudinal posteroanterior cephalometric radiographs from the growth study at the Child Research Council, University of Colorado School of Medicine. Twenty-five male and 25 female white subjects were selected on the basis of a balanced skeletal profile and Class I occlusion with the, absence of crossbite, presence of only minimal clinical crowding, and no orthodontic treatment during the entire period of the study. There were a minimum of 10 P-A cephalometric

Results

The total size increments for each measurement in male and female subjects age 6 to 18 years are given in Figs. 3 and 4.

. Total increments of size of seven transverse measurements in millimeters for male and female subjects age 6 to 18 years. The number above the line is the male value, and the number below the line is the female value.

. Total increments of size of five vertical measurements in millimeters for male and female subjects age 6 to 18 years. The number to the above the line is the

Discussion

The findings of this study confirmed previous reports that vertical growth from 6 to 18 years was much greater than transverse growth.6, 7 Facial width was the largest dimension of the face in this study. The percent increase for males from 6 to 18 years demonstrated large increases in all vertical dimensions within the range of 32% to 40%. For females vertical measurements increased approximately 19% to 26%. Skeletal transverse measurements, excluding cranial width, increased in females 13% to

Summary and conclusions

Longitudinal records of P-A cephalometric radiographs were used to evaluate growth in the transverse and vertical dimensions for 25 females between the ages of 4 to 20 years and for 25 males between the ages of 4 to 25 years. The subjects were selected on the basis of normal skeletal and dental patterns from the Child Research Council in Denver, Colo. Growth was evaluated from the group means and also on the basis of individual growth patterns. Mean values were calculated for each of the nine

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