Morphological comparison of cervical vertebrae in adult females with different sagittal craniofacial patterns: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction:Cervical vertebral maturation (CVM) methods have gained popularity to assess growth and development status for orthodontic patients. Although craniofacial and craniocervical structures are known to be associated, there is no evidence in the literature if this relation might negatively affect the accuracy of CVM assessments. Therefore, this study aimed to comparatively investigate the sizes of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cervical vertebrae in adult females (radius union stage of skeletal maturity) who have different sagittal skeletal patterns.Materials and Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted, and 151 lateral cephalometric radiographs of adult female patients were assessed in the study. Patients were assigned to three groups according to ANB angle. Parameters including concavity depth at the lower border of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cervical vertebrae and base length, upper border length, body length, posterior height, anterior height, and body height of the 3rd and 4th cervical vertebrae bodies were measured. One-way analysis of variance was used for between-group comparisons.Results:No statistically significant differences were found between groups in terms of concavity depth at the lower borders of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cervical vertebrae (P > 0.05). Base length, upper border length, body length, posterior height, anterior height, and body height of the 3rd and 4th cervical vertebrae were also similar between groups (P > 0.05).Conclusions:The results of this study supports that sagittal craniofacial pattern has no effect on the accuracy of using the methods assessing CVM and calculating cervical vertebral age.

Comparison of Cervical Vertebral Body Volume in Class II Vertical and Class II Horizontal Cases With Class I Cases Using 3D-DVT

“…2,3 As an orthodontist deals with varying growth and development of craniofacial structures and modifications in form and function are required, hence there is a need for better understanding of the morphology of cervical vertebrae between the different craniofacial patterns in the sagittal plane without any interfering effects of growth. 4 Regarding skeletal class II accompanied with increased over jet, there was a 52.9% prevalence of fusion anomalies in cervical vertebrae observed, where the associations were statistically significant linking morphology of cervical column with cephalometric measurements. 5 A study by Choi et al conducted in 2016 concluded that there is a positive co relation between the skeletal maturation age and the volume of bodies of second, third, and fourth cervical vertebrae.…”

“…2, 3 As an orthodontist deals with varying growth and development of craniofacial structures and modifications in form and function are required, hence there is a need for better understanding of the morphology of cervical vertebrae between the different craniofacial patterns in the sagittal plane without any interfering effects of growth. 4…”