Morphological Features of the Structure of the Face in Open Bite

Abstract

The results of epidemiological studies of dentoalveolar anomalies conducted in recent years have shown that the prevalence of open bite ranges from 0.9 to 7.5% and reaches 10.5% among all anomalies. Such a significant prevalence of the anomaly, including in adults, should be primarily associated with the difficulty of differential diagnosis of its forms and its correction in childhood. In addition, a number of clinicians consider open bite to be a hereditary disease. The results of a large number of studies indicate that the peak of clinical manifestations of this anomaly occurs in adolescence and adulthood - 14-16 years and older. Nevertheless, in domestic and foreign literature, disorders of the masticatory -speech apparatus are considered mainly in children during the period of primary and mixed dentition.

In addition, the works devoted to the diagnosis of open bite do not actually cover the issues of changes in the facial skeleton in this anomaly. At the same time, a detailed X-ray cephalometric characteristic of open bite will help to get closer to the pathogenesis of this disorder, and the identification of the main forms of the disease will allow for the correct planning of surgical or orthodontic treatment. Most of the known methods for analyzing profile teleradiograms of the head  have shortcomings associated with the lack of consideration of individual features of the facial skeleton structure, or with the impossibility of accurately localizing the abnormalities in the size and position of each jaw. The latter is especially important when planning reconstructive surgeries [1.3.5.7.9].