Ge. Gerstner et al., Relationship between anteroposterior maxillomandibular morphology and masticatory jaw movement patterns, AM J ORTHOD, 115(3), 1999, pp. 258-266
Citations number
47
Categorie Soggetti
Dentistry/Oral Surgery & Medicine
Journal title
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ORTHODONTICS AND DENTOFACIAL ORTHOPEDICS
The causal relationships between oral function and craniomandibular morphol
ogy are poorly understood. The aim of this study was to determine whether q
uantifiable features of masticatory jaw movements and associated EMG activi
ty correlated with variation in morphology as defined by the ANB angle. Thi
rty-six healthy subjects with no previous orthodontic treatment, asymptomat
ic masticatory muscles, and asymptomatic temporomandibular joints participa
ted. While subjects chewed gum, jaw movement data and surface EMG data were
digitized and then quantified into a 300 variable vector for each subject.
ANB angle measurements were calculated from digitized tracings of lateral
cephalographs. Step-wise linear regression and discriminant analyses were u
sed to determine the relationship between the ANB angle and a subset of the
variables defining jaw movement patterns and EMG patterns. A linear combin
ation of seven jaw movements and EMG variables accounted for over 75% of th
e variation in the ANB angle (adjusted R-2 = 0.78, P < .001). A jackknifed
cross-validation of the discriminant analysis, which was forced to use the
same seven variables as the regression analysis, resulted in correct classi
fication of 14 of 20 skeletal Class I, 7 of 9 skeletal Class II, and 7 of 7
skeletal Class III subjects. These results suggest that there is an associ
ation between anteroposterior skeletal morphology, as quantified by the ANB
angle, and masticatory jaw movement patterns, as quantified in this study.