Abstract:
Objectives: To investigate the variation in mandibular asymmetry on right and left sides for different malocclusions. Study design and setting: It was a cross sectional study carried out in Orthodontic Department at Bahria University Dental College. OPG’s of 171 orthodontic patients were collected. The sample was divided into class I, II and III malocclusions. Methodology: The OPG was traced for condylar and ramal heights for both right and left sides. From these readings, the asymmetry index (AI) was calculated for each side. The significance of height variations between the right and left sides, for each malocclusion was calculated using independent sample t-test. Pearson correlation was used to find the association of asymmetry between the two sides when comparing each malocclusion with the other. One-way ANOVA was used to find the significance of differences in asymmetry index of both sides between different malocclusions. Results: The ramal heights were significantly different for each malocclusion with p values of 0.00 and 0.02 for right and left side, the p value of the variations in condylar heights was however 0.66 and 0.12 for the two sides. There was a strong positive correlation of the condylar and ramal height on both sides between all three malocclusions. The p value for condylar AI was 0.97 and 0.15 for ramal AI. Conclusion: The ramus height showed a significant variation in asymmetry while the asymmetry index variations were insignificant between different malocclusion groups