A Cephalometric Skeletal and Dental Analysis of Selected Black American Children in the Indianapolis Area

Abstract

This study was conducted to obtain hard-tissue cephalometric standards for Black American children of twelve years of age. A sample of twenty-four Black American children from the Indianapolis area (thirteen boys and eleven girls} was analyzed and compared with the existing Denver (Caucasian} sample of comparable age. This study was conducted to obtain hard-tissue cephalometric standards for Black American children of twelve years of age. A sample of twenty-four Black American children from the Indianapolis area (thirteen boys and eleven girls} was analyzed and compared with the existing Denver (Caucasian} sample of comparable age. There were only eight measurements that showed no statistical difference from the White standards for both males and females: cranial flexure angle, gonial angle, mandibular plane angle, A-B(OP}, A-B(FH}, A-Pg(OP}, Y-axis angle, and cant of the occlusal plane. There were no significant differences between Black males and Black females. All the linear measurements were significantly larger for the Black sample, except for the chin button (which was significantly smaller in the Blacks}. There was a proportionally larger increase in the mandibular body over the ramus of the mandible in the Black sample; there was a proportionally larger increase in the lower facial height over the upper facial height. In the Black sample, the nasal floor converged upward anteriorly with respect to Frankfort Horizontal. The denture bases and lower face were more protrusive in Blacks; the incisors were more flared and bodily forward. Black patients, therefore, should not be compared to standards set up for Caucasians, but to a set of standards based on normals of their own ethnic group.