Radiographic evaluation of condylar angle and glenoid fossa and their correlation with malocclusion

Malocclusion is a misalignment or incorrect relation between the teeth and its frequency increases with age. Knowledge about normal occlusion can help determine the degree of deviation from the normal position. This study aimed to find a relationship between condylar angles and patient’s malocclusion. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 81 patients aged 15-25 years randomly selected from those presenting to the Orthodontics Department of School of Dentistry, Tehran University of Medical Sciences from 2001 to 2008. Subjects with craniofacial syndromes, congenital rheumatic diseases, thyroid problems and those taking hormonal medications were excluded from the study. Lateral cephalograms of patients were obtained and type of malocclusion was determined using Wits analysis and measurement of ANB angle. the. The angle between the condylar head, condylar neck and articular eminence slope and the angle between the bisector of the afore mentioned angle and the articular slope were measured on the cephalograms. Data were analyzed using Spearman’s test correlation test, paired t-test and two-way ANOVA. The right and left correlation coefficient was 0.459 in patients with class I malocclusion (P=0), 0.276 in patients with class II malocclusion (P=0.011) and 0.334 in patients with class III malocclusion (P=0.02). There were no significant associations among these measurements and age, gender or type of malocclusion. The effect of two independent variables was not statistically significant either. This study showed that there was no correlation between the type of malocclusion and the angle between the articular eminence slope and the horizontal line, the angle between the condylar head and condylar neck or the angle between the bisector of the aforementioned angle and the articular slope.