Características craneofaciales en pacientes con desgaste dentario severo

introduction: in order to test the null hypothesis "there are no significant differences in the craniofacial architectural and structural characteristics among individuals with and without severe tooth wear", a non experimental analytic case control study was carried out with patients who consulted for prosthodontic or orthodontic treatment. methods: 78 patients between 22 and 55 years of age participated. the experimental group consisted of 26 patients between 29 and 55 years of age (9 women and 17 men). the control group consisted of 52 patients between 22 and 50 years of age (18 women and 34 men) matched by gender -age range and posterior cranium base angle. all of them had occlusal stability, without previous orthodontic treatment, surgery or growth and development alterations. the measuring instrument was a specifically designed cephalogram which included the architectural and structural parameters from delaire？s analysis, combined with some extra radiographic points defined by the authors for this particular study. the parameters under investigation were different cranial structural relationships including occlusal plane position. statistical analysis using t-test, chi square test and pearson？s correlation test were carried out depending of the nature of the data. results: significant differences were particularly found on maxillary and mandibular basal bone and on the position of the actual occlusal plane with respect to the theoretical plane. conclusions: it was concluded that in patients with severe tooth wear, a modification of the maxillary and mandibular basal bone could have taken place with remodelling of the dental alveolar process resulting in a cranial rotation of the occlusal plane. an apparent stability of the facial height and the mandibular angle was observed in spite of the obvious change in the position of the occlusal plane.