Craniofacial morphology and tooth wear: A longitudinal study of orthodontic patients

Previous research has suggested that a relationship exists between craniofa cial morphology and tooth wear. The primary objective of this study was to determine whether an individual's craniofacial morphology during childhood is related to the degree of tooth wear that occurs in that same individual' s adult dentition, Pretreatment orthodontic records taken during the mixed dentition (T-1) and follow-up records taken an average of 20 years later (T -2) were available fur 165 orthodontic patients. Incisal/occlusal tooth wea r was measured on a tooth-by-tooth basis from T-1 and T-2 casts using a fou r-category scoring system. Measures of craniofacial morphology were made fr om the T-1 lateral cephalometric radiograph. Multiple regression analysis i ndicated that adult wear was associated with the T-1 cephalometric measures of ANB (p = 0.017) and the interaction between ramal height and sex (p = 0 .039). These results suggest that the craniofacial morphology observed duri ng childhood has a small but significant relationship to adult tooth wear.