Sagittal and vertical occlusal cephalometric analyses of Pancherz: Norms for Chinese children.

Introduction: The aims of this research were to establish norms for the sagittal and vertical occlusal cephalometric analyses of Pancherz for Chinese children and compare them with those of a matched white sample.

Methods: The material comprised lateral cephalograms of a random sample of 405 southern Chinese children (age, 12 years; 200 boys, 205 girls) and an additional sample of 86 British white children (age, 12 years; 43 boys, 43 girls) in Hong Kong. The radiographs were digitized twice.

Results: Statistically significant sex differences were found for 9 of 11 parameters in the sagittal occlusal analysis, and 6 of 10 in the vertical occlusal analysis in the Chinese sample, whereas there were no sex differences in the sagittal occlusal analysis and only 2 differences in the vertical occlusal analysis in the white sample. Statistically significant ethnic differences were found for 5 parameters in boys and 8 in girls of the 11 parameters in the sagittal analysis. For the vertical analysis, 7 of 10 parameters in both sexes differed significantly.

Conclusions: For the sagittal and vertical occlusal analyses of Pancherz, separate sex-specific standards are needed for Chinese and white children.