The condylar morphology in adult females of skeletal class II division 1 malocclusion with various vertical skeletal features: a study by cone beam computed tomography

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the condylar morphology parameters using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). 180 adult female patients with skeletal Class II division 1 were recruited in this study. Then the participants were divided into three groups according to the values of GoGn-SN and S-Go/N-Me. Mimics 10.01 software was used to reconstruct the CBCT images and measure the parameters including condylar volume, surface area, morphological index, inner-outer and front-back diameters on the sagittal and coronal sections. Our results showed that there were no significant difference by condylar morphological parameters in patients with the same vertical skeletal pattern (P>0.05). All the measured parameters in the low angle group were significantly different with those in the average angle group (P<0.05). Similarly, all the measured parameters except the morphological index in the low angle group were significantly different with those in the high angle group (P<0.05). Significant difference was found between the high angle group and the low angle group regarding the parameters including condylar MI, inner-outer and front-back diameters (P<0.05). In conclusion, our study demonstrated that there was significant difference regarding the condylar morphology among females of skeletal Class II division 1 malocclusion with various vertical skeletal features. The data was important and valuable for radiological diagnosis, orthodontic treatments and orthognathic surgery.