Relationship of Anterior Alveolar Dimensions with Mandibular Divergence in Class I Malocclusion - A Cephalometric Study.

Introduction: One of the major limiting factors in retraction of proclined teeth is the width of the alveolus both in maxilla and mandible.

Aim: The objective of this study was to assess the maxillary and mandibular anterior alveolar dimensions and to correlate with mandibular divergence in Class I bi-dento-alveolar protrusion patients.

Materials And Methods: Pretreatment lateral cephalograms (n=88) were analysed using a composite analysis with cephalometric software. Both maxillary and mandibular anterior alveolar widths and heights were measured and correlated with mandibular divergence. One-way analysis (ANOVA) and Pearson correlation test were used to compare and establish the significance between groups.

Results: Segregation of the data based on variation in the bi-cortical widths and heights showed that lesser alveolar widths and greater alveolar heights were associated with the high angled subjects and greater alveolar widths and lesser heights were associated with low angled subjects.

Conclusion: Patients with hyperdivergent mandible exhibited thin anterior alveolar width and greater alveolar height whereas low angled subjects had wider alveolar width and lesser alveolar height. Orthodontic treatment plan for retraction of anterior teeth must be based on these differences caused by variations in mandibular divergence.