Comparison of the Accuracy of Manual and Digital Cephalometric Prediction Methods in Orthognathic Surgical Planning: A Pilot Study

Özet

Objective: To compare and evaluate the reliability of manual and digital cephalometric prediction methods in orthognathic surgicalplanningMethods: Ten adults (5 females and 5 males) with skeletal class III malocclusion were included. The mean patient age was 21.97 years.Pre- to postoperative changes were evaluated using paired t-test. Manual surgical predictions made by tracing on acetate paperand digital predictions made using computer software were compared with actual postoperative values using intraclass correlationcoefficient and root mean square.Results: Statistically significant changes were observed in SNA, SNB, ANB, U1i-FH, and Nperp-A following bimaxillary orthognathicsurgery (p<0.001). Postoperative changes in Co-A and Nperp-Pg were statistically significant (p<0.05). Comparison of manual and dig-ital surgical predictions with actual postoperative values revealed that overbite and overjet showed the lowest agreements. Manualpredictions were less accurate for points that were difficult to distinguish (Co and U6). Skeletal predictions were more accurate thandental predictions.Conclusion: Parameters with low reproducibility (Co and U6) decrease the reliability of predictions. Dental predictions were inaccu-rate in both methods due to the effects of intermaxillary elastics, but both methods yielded similar predictions for skeletal parameters.The impact of applying strong elastics for postoperative intermaxillary fixation should be considered when making surgical predic-tions.