The concept of pattern in craniofacial growth.

1. There are semantic and associated problems with the word pattern in biology, particularly in orthodontics and facial growth. 2. Pattern, as we use the term, is invariance of relationships--"a set of constraints operating to preserve the integration of parts under varying conditions and through time." 3. Craniofacial pattern can be described and quantified by the identification of craniofacial constants, measures that are relatively invariant. 4. Growth is change and is best identified by studying those measures of size and shape that vary most sensitively through time over development stages. 5. The many traditional cephalometric measures that represent well neither pattern nor growth (mixed) are of less clinical utility than either pure pattern indices or growth indices. 6. The analytical and conceptual separation of pattern and growth seems useful in analysis of morphology, analysis of growth, prediction of growth, and clinical treatment planning.