AN EVALUATION OF 2 VTO METHODS

A sample of 34 growing Class Il patients was used to assess the reliab ility of manual and computer-generated visual treatment objectives (VT Os) when compared with the actual treatment results. Skeletal, dental, and soft tissue measurements were performed on the VTO and on the pos ttreatment tracings. Using paired t-tests and Pearson correlation coef ficients, comparisons were made between the VTO and posttreatment trac ings. Both the manual and computer VTO methods were accurate when pred icting skeletal changes that occurred during treatment. However, both methods were only moderately successful in forecasting dental and soft tissue alterations during treatment. Only slight differences were see n between the manual and computer VTO methods, with the computer being slightly more accurate with the soft tissue prediction. However, the differences between the two methods were not judged to be clinically s ignificant. Overall, the prediction tracings were accurate to only a m oderate degree, with marked individual variation evident throughout th e sample.