The Accuracy of measurements during model surgery for orthognathic planning

ABSTRACT

The errors in orthognathic surgery can occur during the preoperative preparations including the model surgery, but till now there's been some lack of reserches about them. So we wanted to verify the accuracies in measurements used in model surgery. We compared the accuracy of measurements by vernier calipers, which has been the main measurement tool for conventional model surgery, and that by height gauge, which is recently claimed to be more accurate, with 3 dimensional coordinate analyzer. We could have following results and have a plan to use them for the invention of new model surgery techniques. 1. The measurement errors in Group 1, which mean the difference between "the measurements by 3-D analyzer" and "the measurements by height gauge", were small enough with the range of 0.1~0.2mm in all planes. 2. The mean error in Group 2, which is the differences between the measurements of 3-D analyzer and those of vernier calipers, was 1.1mm. 3. The measurement errors in Group 2 were variable according to the factors including the differences of individuality and expertness of each measurers. But in case of Group 1, they were small and not variable by the expertness. 4. The measurements were more accurate at the points in anterior teeth than in molar teeth in Group 1 and 2. 5. The errors after model surgery increased remarkably, compared with those before surgery in Group 2. And the situation was different in Group 1 in that errors decreased after surgery. Accoding to these results, it assumed that the measurements with height gauge during the model surgery for orthognathic surgery are accurate enough and can be maintained, regardless of complexity of models, individuality, or expertness of measurers.