Correlation of Dental and Skeletal Malocclusions in Sagittal Plane among Saudi Orthodontic Patients.

AIM Whether or not the dental relationship correlates with skeletal relationship in the sagittal plane is an area of interest for orthodontic diagnosis and treatment planning. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the correlation of the dental malocclusion and the skeletal malocclusion in the sagittal plane among Saudi orthodontic patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS Orthodontic dental casts and cephalometric radiographs of 124 patients were investigated and analyzed. The dental casts were classified in relation to the molar relationship according to Angle's classification and to the incisal relationship according to the British Standards Institution (BSI) classification. The sagittal relation in the cephalometric radiographs was analyzed according to ANB angle and WITS appraisal. RESULTS The results show that the incisal relation had a very high significant association with WITS appraisal (p = 0.0045), whereas with ANB, the association was marginally significant (p =0.0528). No significant associations were found with molar relation neither at ANB (p = 0.2075) nor at the WITS (p = 0.4794) appraisal. Significant positive correlations between ANB and WITS appraisal were found at the three incisal classification classes (class I, r = 0.73; class II, r = 0.64; class III, r = 0.75) and no significant correlation was observed in all classes with the Angle's (molar) classification. CONCLUSIONS The incisal classification had a significant association with WITS appraisal, whereas with ANB the association was marginally significant. No correlation was found between Angle's (molar) classification and ANB or WITS appraisal. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE The incisal relation could be considered as a good indicator of the skeletal malocclusion in the sagittal plane in the orthodontic practice.