ABSTRACT
Background: Soft palate is an essential component of the upper airway. Variations in soft palate morphology can be seen on the lateral cephalogram. The aim of this study was to find cephalometric association between various shapes of soft palate with different growth pattern and age groups in skeletal class I, II and III malocclusion.
Methods: The pretreatment lateral cephalograms of 382 patients was collected from the department of Orthodontics, Liaquat College of Medicine & Dentistry, Karachi. The study included 96 males and 286 females between the ages of 11 to 30 years. All the patients were divided according to skeletal classification of malocclusion. The type of skeletal malocclusion, growth pattern and the morphological variations of soft palate were assessed. The differences in the proportion of soft palate morphology among skeletal malocclusion and growth pattern were calculated. Variation of the soft palate morphology among the genders and different age groups were also determined.
Results: Subjects with Type 1 "leaf-shaped" soft palates were more prevalent (43.2%) whereas, The Type 4 "Straight-line" soft palate was least common (2.9%). Type 1 "leaf-shaped" soft palate was the most common in all skeletal malocclusion classes, growth pattern types and both genders.
Conclusion: This study found significant association between soft palate morphology with type of skeletal malocclusion and gender. No significant association found between soft palate morphology and types of growth pattern.
Key words: Keywords: soft palate shapes, growth pattern, age groups, skeletal malocclusion, lateral cephalogram.
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