Abstract
The purpose of this study was to elucidate the skull, the dentfacial complex and the dental arch of extremely immature infants and very low birth weight infants, what we call “the face of the immatured infant”, with the objective measuring and analyzing of the craniometric points and the dental arch model.
The materials consisted of plaster models and Roentgen Cephalograms (Lateral and Postero-Anterior) obtained from 20 children (mean age 3yllm) having no problems with their general condition and whose weight at birth was lower than 1500 g. They were treated by the department of pedodontics, school of dentistry, Showa University.
The findings were as follows:
1. The dental arch was generally small, narrow in width and was shown to be almost standard in the U-shaped arch. The height of the palate was almost standard in the anterial part and tended to be shallow in the posterial part.
2. In the Roentgen Cephalogram (lateral), the growth of the dentfacial complex was almost standard based on angular analysis using the craniometric points. But the ramus mandibula was poor analysis of the length showed that the antero-posterial length tended to be long in the braincase, almost standard in the mesofacial part, and small in the mandibulo-facial part. From the measurement of the area of the tubella sella triangle, the growth of the mandibula was poor and the area of the occiput was enlarged. Also the points of the depth of the skull were rather longer than the heights.
3. In the Roentgen Cephalogram (Postero-Anterior), the width of the cranial bone was narrow in each cranial breadth.
The results obtained showed that the morphological characteristics of the skull at the age of 4 years were narrow width, short antero-posterial length, poor growth of the mandibula, and the dental arch were effected.
