Cephalometric values for adult Mexican-Americans.

Cephalometric studies of adult Mexican-Americans are incomplete. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether significant cephalometric differences exist between adult Mexican-American, black American, and white patients. Lateral cephalometric radiographs were taken of 48 Mexican-American adults (23 men, 25 women). All subjects met the following criteria: parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents were born in Mexico; 18 to 50 years of age; Class I occlusion with minor or no crowding; good facial balance; no significant medical history or history of facial trauma; no previous orthodontic treatment or maxillofacial surgery. Twenty-five cephalometric measurements were analyzed. Significant racial and sexual differences were found in the following areas: skeletal measurement (SNA, ANB, PO-N perpendicular, Co-A, Co-Gn, ANS-Me, MP-FH, MP-SN); dental measurement (U1-A perpendicular, L1-APo, U1-L1, IMPA); soft tissue measurement (NLA, FCA, UFH (pu), ULL). Orthodontists and oral surgeons will find the cephalometric values of help in the diagnosis and treatment planning of potential orthognathic surgery patients.

Individuality of human palatal rugae.

Investigators have implied that palatal rugae are unique to each individual. However, these researchers have disagreed as to whether or not legal identification could be based solely on palatal rugae. Previous studies used poor duplicating materials and may not have considered the effects of growth, extractions, palatal expansion, or some combination of these. The inadvertent use of other features of the cast, such as teeth, edentulous ridge morphology, muscle attachments, vestibular depth, or some combination of these, to aid in the identification, may have influenced their results. The purpose of this investigation was to determine if palatal rugae can be relied upon for identification. Twenty-five orthodontic cases were selected with pre- and post-treatment casts; orthodontic treatment had taken eighteen to sixty months. One hundred casts were randomly selected as variables. All casts were trimmed so that all areas except for the rugae area of the hard palate were removed. The twenty-five post-orthodontic casts were dispersed within 100 randomly selected casts. Nine investigators were given the twenty-five pre-orthodontic casts and asked to compare them to the other one hundred and twenty-five casts for possible matches. Data were collected as to percentage of correct matches and time required for comparison. Each set of pre- and post-orthodontic casts was properly identified (100%) by 8 investigators, and the remaining investigator correctly matched 22 out of 25 casts (88%). These conclusions were drawn.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)