Comparison of cephalometric measurements and cone-beam computed tomography-based measurements of palatal bone thickness.

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between cephalometric measurements and cone-beam computed tomography-based measurements of the palatal bone thickness.

METHODS

Thirty sets of cone-beam computed tomography images and lateral cephalograms were used. Palatal bone thicknesses were measured anteroposteriorly from between the first and second premolars to between the first and second molars using both imaging methods, and also laterally from 1.5 mm off-center to 10 mm off-center in the cone-beam computed tomography images. Repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to examine the differences between the measurements.

RESULTS

Bland-Altman plots showed that the 95% limits of agreement were smallest at 5 mm off-center (-0.2 ± 1.7 mm). The 5-mm off-center measurements were the only ones for which there were no statistically significant differences compared with the cephalometric measurements in all anteroposterior areas. The measurements at 1.5 mm off-center were significantly thicker than the cephalometric measurements only from the area between the second premolar and the first molar to the area between the first and second molars.

CONCLUSIONS

Among the areas measured, the bone at 5 mm off-center is most likely to be depicted in cephalograms as palatal bone contours.