CEPHALOMETRIC FEATURES OF CLASS III MALOCCLUSION.

AIM: The study aimed to identify quantitative and relational characteristics of bone, dental and soft tissue structures for Class III malocclusion, according to gender and age range. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 60 conventional lateral cephalograms were divided into two groups according to ANB angle: the group of cases with skeletal Class III (n = 36) and a control group with skeletal Class I (n = 24). There were performed 53 digital cephalometric measurements according to Steiner, Tweed and Jarabak analyzes. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov, t-student and Levene tests were used to find the characteristics of Class III, using SPSS 16.0 for Windows. RESUITS: We found 14 parameters that distinguished the two classes disorders (the angles SNB, SND, FMA, IMPA, MeGoOcP, Mand 1-MeGo, NSAr, ArGoMe, NGoMe and SNPog; the distances Ao-Bo and lu-NPog; Holdaway and AFH ratios) and 3 parameters for the Class III age ranges (NGoAr angle, Ls-NsPog' distance and S-Ar:Ar-Go ratio) (p </= 0.05). There were found no significant differences between genders for skeletal Class III. CONCLUSION: Emphasizing the cephalometric characteristics of Class III malocclusion, with the overall growth together with dental and occlusion development, requires early orthodontic therapy.