Dimensional differences in the craniofacial morphologies of groups with deep and shallow mandibular antegonial notching

Certain craniofacial characteristics were identified on the lateral cephalograms of 40 untreated subjects with shallow mandibular antegonial notches and 40 subjects with deep notches. Subjects with shallow notches demonstrated more on the morphological characteristics usually associated with horizontal mandibular growth patterns than did subjects with deep notches, and their mandibles were positioned more protrusively. In general, the mandibles of the shallow notch subjects proved to be longer than mandibles of the deep notch subjects. On average, mandibles with deep notches showed greater gonial angles, deeper posterior ramus notch depths, and larger occlusal plane inclinations. The total anterior facial height of shallow notch subjects was much smaller than that of the deep notch subjects. The maxillae in deep notch subjects were more retrusive in relation to the cranial base when compared with the shallow notch subjects. A discriminant analysis was used to determine which combinations of variables were most consistently related to either deep or shallow mandibular antegonial notches. Eighty percent (80%) of the cases were classified correctly as deep or shallow notch cases by means of this discriminant function.