Cephalometric Assessment of Effect of Head Rotation toward Focal Spot on Lateral Cephalometric Radiographs

Abstract

The patient's head can be slightly rotated sagittally vertically or transversely with the head holding device. Because of such improper positions due to head rotation, an error can occur in cephalometric measurements. The purpose of this study was to identify the projection errors of lateral cephalometric radiograph due to head rotation in the vertical Z-axis toward the focal spot. Ten human dry skulls with permanent dentition were collected. Each dry skull was rotated from 0° to +20° at 5° intervals. A vertical axis, the Z-axis, was used as a rotational axis to have 50 lateral cephalometric radiographs exposed. Four linear (S-N, Go-Me, N-Me, S-Go) and six angular measurements (SNA, SNB, N-S-Ar, S-Ar-Go, Ar-Go-Me, AB-mandibular plane angle) were calculated manually. The findings were that: (1) Angular measurements have fewer projection errors than linear measurements. (2) The greater the number of landmarks on the midsagittal plane that are included in angular measurements, the fewer the projection errors occurring. (3) Horizontal linear measurements have more projection errors than vertical linear measurements. The angular measurements of lateral cephalometric radiographs are more useful than linear measurements in minimizing the projection errors associated with head rotation on a vertical axis toward the focal spot.