The Influence of Extreme Vertical Facial Variations on the Wits Cephalometric Appraisal

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence the cant of the occlusal plane has on the Wits appraisal. Forty pretreatment caucasian Class II, division I lateral cephalograms were examined in this study. These cephalograms were divided into 20 high mandibular plane angle (FMA of 32.9 degrees or greater) and 20 low mandibular plane angle (FMA of 19.9 degrees or less) cephalograms. The high mandibular plane angle group consisted of 10 males and 10 females with an average age of 11 years 4 months. The low mandibular plane angle group consisted of 7 males and 13 females with an average age of 11 years 11 months. Fourteen points were digitized utilizing the Dentofacial Planner software program to render a lateral cephalometric analysis consisting of five angular measurements and seven linear measurements. Paired t-tests were used to compare the high and low mandibular plane angle subjects. Correlation tests utilizing the Pearson correlation coefficient analysis were performed to measure the magnitude of correlation between the Wits appraisal and ANB, FAFB angles as well as the linear measurement AOV+BOV. The results demonstrated that there was a statistical difference at the