Sella turcica bridges in orthodontic and orthognathic surgery patients. A retrospective cephalometric study

To investigate the prevalence of sella turcica bridges in patients accepted for conventional orthodontic treatment and orthognathic surgery.

The pretreatment lateral cephalograms of 635 subjects scheduled for orthodontic treatment and 113 subjects scheduled for orthognathic surgery were used. The number of subjects with complete sella bridges and the type of discrepancy (Angle Class I, II, or III malocclusions, skeletal Class 2, 3 or bimaxillary protrusion) were recorded.

Sella turcica bridges were found in 3.74 per cent of the total sample of 748 subjects. In the orthodontic group 3.21, 2.97 and 7.14 per cent of subjects in the Class 1, II and III subgroups respectively had sella bridges. In the orthognathic surgery group 2.86 and 10.71 per cent of the subjects in the Skeletal 2 and 3 subgroups respectively had sella bridges. No subjects in the bimaxillary subgroup had sella bridges. In the orthodontic group 2.20 per cent of the female subjects and 1.10 per cent of the male subjects had sella bridges, while in the orthognathic surgery group 1.77 of the females and 4.42 per cent of the males had sella bridges.

Higher percentages of sella turcica bridges were found in subjects with Angle Class III and skeletal 3 discrepancies compared with subjects with Angle Class I, II, skeletal 2 or bimaxillary protrusion discrepancies.