[Investigation of the maxillary dental arches at different development stages]

Our research was carried out on maxillary casts obtained from 40 patients at prepubertal and postpubertal stages. The individuals were divided into four groups and each group consisted of 10 boys and 10 girls. The cases at prepubertal and postpubertal stages, had mixed dentitions and permanent dentitions respectively. On these casts intermolar and intercanine arch width, arch length, ratio, palatal vault depth and palatal volume measurements were performed. In the maxillary dental arch, the changes associated with the development in both sexes and the differences between the sexes with respect to the measurements were evaluated by paired t-test. The correlation of these measurements were also analysed. Consequently our findings were evaluated in the light of recent publications in the literature.