Role of parental variables in predicting facial growth after treatment of anterior crossbite.

A pilot study was done to determine whether parental cephalometric variables could be used to better predict craniofacial dimensions in their offspring. The sample consisted of lateral roentgenographic cephalograms from 41 children who had been treated with functional appliances for anterior crossbites and from their respective parents. The actual mandibular prognathic growth change of each child after treatment was determined from two profile radiographs over a 3-year period. Morphologic features after treatment and those of the respective parents were compared with the observed yearly growth change, and the predictive values were calculated by means of uni- or multivariate analysis. The best fit predictive formula was obtained by the total observation of variables from both children and their parents by means of multiple regression analysis in which the correlation coefficient exceeded 0.9 despite a value of less than 0.5 when the variables were analyzed separately by simple regression analysis. Thus, to predict the craniofacial growth for a given type of child, the dimensions of the child in addition to those of his or her parents (hereditary) seem to be a valid approach.