Posteroanterior cephalometric analysis of the parental craniofacial morphology in orofacial clefting.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the parental craniofacial morphology in orofacial clefting (OFC).

DESIGN

Case-control posteroanterior cephalometric study.

SETTING

The Department of Orthodontics, University of Dundee Dental School, Scotland, United Kingdom.

PARTICIPANTS

Ninety-two parents from a completely ascertained sample of 286 Scottish babies with nonsyndromic OFC and 43 comparison group volunteers from the University of Dundee Dental School.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

A conventional cephalometric analysis was used to measure linear distances and their ratios, angles, and areas. Two-sample Student's t tests and a discriminant analysis were applied to the data, and the clinically important statistically significant variables were identified using an accepted protocol.

RESULTS

Sixty-four linear distances, 10 ratios, 52 angles, and 7 areas statistically significantly differed between the parental and comparison groups (p <.01). Of these, 62 linear distances (22%), 9 ratios (45%), 41 angles (41%), and 6 areas (24%) were clinically important. Asymmetry was a feature of the results. Canonical variates analysis correctly classified 91.3% of the parental group and 90.6% of the comparison group using a series of 36 variables.

CONCLUSIONS

The parental craniofacial morphology in OFC differs significantly from the noncleft population. A larger superolateral face and smaller central midface and, in particular, a clinically significantly smaller maxillary width, in conjunction with skeletal asymmetry, characterize the parents of Scottish children with OFC. These features may be of morphogenetic importance in the etiopathogenesis of OFC in this ethnic group.