Dento-skeletal pattern in a group of thalassemic Egyptian children

ABSTRACT

This work was done in order to study the dentoskeletal pattern of a group of Egyptian children suffering from thalassemia. The sample studied consisted of seventy Egyptian children ranging in age between nine and forteen years. The sample was divided into two groups; the first group consisted of forty children suffering from thalassemia major and the other group consisted of thirty normal children. For every subject in the study lateral cephalometric analysis was done. It was found that in thalassemic patients there was significant lengthening of the anterior cranial base, downward and backward rotation of the mandible with increase in the lower face height, while there was no significant abnormality in the antero-posterior position of the maxillary. Upper incisors were retroclined in thalassemic patients, whereas there were no significant difference in the remaining dental cephalometric measurements recorded when compared to normal children