ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to compare landmark position between cephalometric radiography and midsagittal plane projected images from 3 dimensional (3D) CT. METHODS: Cephalometric radiographs and CT scans were taken from 20 patients for treatment of mandibular prognathism. After selection of landmarks, CT images were projected to the midsagittal plane and magnified to 110% according to the magnifying power of radiographs. These 2 images were superimposed with frontal and occipital bone. Common coordinate system was established on the base of FH plane. The coordinate value of each landmark was compared by paired t test and mean and standard deviation of difference was calculated. RESULTS: The difference was from -0.14 +/- 0.65 to -2.12 +/- 2.89 mm in X axis, from 0.34 +/- 0.78 to -2.36 +/- 2.55 mm (6.79 +/- 3.04 mm) in Y axis. There was no significant difference only 9 in X axis, and 7 in Y axis out of 20 landmarks. This might be caused by error from the difference of head positioning, by masking the subtle end structures, identification error from the superimposition and error from the different definition. CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed innate shortcomings of radiography. For the development of 3D cephalometry, more study was needed.
