Shape differences among symmetrically shaped skeletal growth patterns in a panoramic view: a Fourier analysis

The objective of this study was to apply elliptic Fourier analysis (EFA) to find shape differences among skeletal growth patterns in both radiographic and tomographic panoramic views, controlling for asymmetry. Lateral and panoramic images were obtained from 350 patients. After screening patients with asymmetric linear and angular values and natural asymmetric hemimandibular shape, 240 patients were included in the study: 48 with tomographic information and 192 with radiographic information. The images were classified according to the mandibular plane angle and the ANB angle. Mandibular contours were digitized on the panoramic images and EFA was performed with 20 harmonics, filtering rotation, translation and size properties. As there were no differences between radiographic and tomographic panoramic mandibular contours and normal distribution was found in all groups, MANOVA was conducted to determine differences using a Hotelling's p-values with Bonferroni correction and an XY graph tool was applied to visualize these differences graphically. A 95% confidence level was used. Significative differences were found among hypodivergent, normodivergent, and hyperdivergent patterns in Class I, II, and III (p < 0.05), located mainly in the symphyseal region. The results of this study suggest that EFA is a useful tool to mathematically analyze mandibular contours and their morphological differences given by facial biotypes. This method could improve the precision of the mandibular prediction models.