Measurements of mandibular length: A comparison of articulare vs condylion

This study examines the validity of articulare for mandibular length measur ements by exposing 3 lateral cephalograms on each of 60 consecutive patient s. The radiographs were exposed with the patient in a closed-mouth position in habitual occlusion, a closed-mouth position with the patient in centric relation, and in an open-mouth position. The linear distances (mm) of arti culare (Ar) to pogonion (Pog), Ar to gonion (Go), and Go to Fog were measur ed on the 2 closed-mouth cephalograms and compared with each other as well as the linear distances of condyle (Co) to Fog, Co to Go, and Go to Fog mea sured from the open-mouth cephalogram on each individual. Product-moment co rrelation coefficients were used to measure the Linear associations among t he mandibular measurements from the 3 techniques. Repeated measures analyse s of variance were also fit to estimate the correlations between the 3 meas urements adjusted for age and sex. The results of this study show that meas urements taken from both closed-mouthed techniques agreed extremely well (i ntraclass correlation coefficient = 0.99). In addition, measurements from b oth closed-mouth techniques highly agreed with the corresponding measuremen ts taken with the open-mouth technique (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.94). This data suggests that measurements taken from Ar correlate very well with measurements taken from Co and that this correlation is not depen dent on whether the patient is positioned in habitual occlusion or centric relation.