AN EVALUATION OF GROWTH CHANGES AND TREATMENT EFFECTS IN CLASS-II, DIVISION-1 MALOCCLUSION WITH CONVENTIONAL ROENTGENOGRAPHIC CEPHALOMETRY AND FINITE-ELEMENT METHOD ANALYSIS

Conventional methods of roentgenographic cephalometry will yield diffe rences in interpretation of growth or treatment changes depending on w hich methods of superimposition are used. The finite element method of analysis has been reported to have significant advantages since it do es not require a reference frame to describe the changes that have tak en place. This article describes the growth of a patient with a Class II, Division 1 malocclusion during approximately 2 years of orthodonti c treatment with the use of conventional cephalometric growth and stat ic analyses, as well as the finite element method. Thirty cephalometri c points were digitized on the pretreatment and the posttreatment late ral cephalograms of a patient undergoing orthodontic treatment between the ages of 10 and 12 years. The finite element method provided a ref erence frame invariant description of the size, shape, change, and rot ation of each of the 12 finite elements representing different anatomi c structures.