Dental esthetic self-evaluation and satisfaction.

Four hundred eighty-one 10- to 13-year-old children answered questions to determine their skill at self-evaluation and their level of self-satisfaction with their own dental appearance. Their answers were correlated to dental-orthodontic variables measured for each child. Findings indicate that while subjects were objective in self-evaluation, there were sex-specific correlates between particular dental variables and self-satisfaction.

Congenital absence of teeth: a review with emphasis on inheritance patterns.

Congenital absence of teeth is a heritably phenomenon probably most often passed to each generation by an autosomal dominant pattern with incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity. Correlation of hypodontia with systemic disease leads to the hypothesis that this frequent dental anomaly may in some cases be a microform of systemic ectodermal dysplasia.

Hyoid changes following orthopedic treatment of mandibular prognathism.

In this study 30 patients exhibiting mandibular prognathism were treated by the orthopedic chin-cup appliance for a three-year period. The patients began treatment at the age of six years and completed treatment at the age of nine years. As previously reported, chin-cup treatment resulted in a "clockwise" facial rotation with the mandible moving relatively posteriorly and inferiorly. Hyoid position measured in this study also tended to move slightly posteriorly but was primarily displaced in an inferior direction. The positional alteration exceeded in amount what might have been expected by growth alone. The inferior direction of change in hyoid and associated structures and the resultant lack of encroachment on the vital pharyngeal passageways suggests that stability and patency of the pharyngeal airway is a primary factor in hyoid positioning. The duration and "growth guidance" aspects of treatment allowed for functional as well as morphologic adaption to the altered hyoid position.

Manibular growth in the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta).

Mandibular growth of 42 /1 735) (Macaca mulatta) was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Four groups of animals were defined according to dentitional age (i.e., infant, juvenile, adolescent, young adult). At each age growth was observed fopment, 57 periods of growth were studied. The growth incremental data were collected by superimposing serial cephalograms on mandibular implants. Growth and remodeling of both the skeletal and dento-alveolar components of the rhesus mandible were greatest in the infant monkeys and were less in successive age groups. Posterior relocation of the ramus was noted in all age groups while bone deposition on the anterior and inferior borders of the mandibular body was greatest in the younger animals. The most pronounced dental changes also occurred in the younger animals while the dentitions of the adolescent and adult animals were generally more stable. This study demonstrates that the rate and direction of normal mandibular growth varies with the age of the animal. Furthermore, mandibular growth is quantified at four defined maturational levels to provide a set of values illustrating normal mandibular growth. These values can also be used as control data for experimental studies.