Cephalometric norms of a Burkina Faso population

After a clinical examination, in order to implement an appropriate treatment planning, additional examinations such as lateral cephalograms, were performed. They were submitted to a cephalometric analysis such as the Tweed-Merrifield analysis. These cephalometric analyses based on a synthesis of aesthetic criteria established for a Caucasian European-American white people population could not serve as the reference for an African population. The aim of our study was to help establish the cephalometric norms of the Tweed-Merrifield's craniofacial and aesthetic analysis for a consulting population in the city of Ouagadougou.

This is a retrospective cross-sectional descriptive study conducted on a sample of lateral cephalograms selected among the files of patients consulting in the department of dental surgery at the Yalgado Ouédraogo university hospital centre of Ouagadougou. The patients were selected upon their balanced facial aesthetics. The same operator using acetate paper traced cephalogram on radiographs and collected the angular and linear values for the analysis.

A total of 84 cephalograms, 42 male lateral cephalograms and the same number of females, were included. Their age ranged from 11 to 21 years old, with a mean age of 14.34 years. The mean SNA angle was 84.94°±2.59, the ANB angle was 4.88°. The vertical dimension was within the mean values, which was not the case for the mandibular incisor axis, very tipped buccally with an IMPA angle of 95.97°. The profile of the African subject was characterized by a closed Z angle.

The profile of the African subject was rather prognathic, the maxilla and the mandible were prominent in relation to the cranial base. The maxillary-mandibular relationship is Ballard's class II. The typical alveolar biprotrusion must be considered as an ethnical data, which our treatment plans must consider.