Assessment of various shapes of Soft Palate-A Retrospective Lateral Cephalometric Study

Abstract

Aim: The aim of our study is to investigate the morphological variants of the soft palate among patient seeking orthodontic treatment. Materials and methods: A retrospective study was carried out in the Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Saveetha Dental College by analysing 100 lateral cephalometric radiographs of patients seeking orthodontic treatment from October 2016 to December 2016.The morphological variants of soft palate was assessed on Digital lateral Cephalometric radiograph and were allocated to one of the six patterns as described by You et al. Results: In our study, the frequency of rat tail shaped(type 2) soft palate(47%) was seen in highest proportion while butt like(type 3) soft palate(2%) was least in both the genders. Conclusion: The knowledge of morphological variants of the soft palate helps us to get a better understanding of velopharyngeal closure, structural and functional repair in cases of cleft palate and in the etiological study of obstructive sleep apnoea and snoring.