Cephalometrics in Pediatric Dentistry

Cephalometrics, introduced by BROADBENT in the year 1931, plays a crucial role in Pedodontics and Dentofacial Orthopaedics. It has made it easier and economical to predict the post-orthodontic results of the patient using this as a tool. This chapter outlines the basics of cephalometrics, including the indications, limitations, etc., with special emphasis on its role in Pediatric Dentistry. It lays down the recent guidelines given by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry for using cephalometrics in children. It provides details regarding various tools, equipment required, and methodology of tracing as well as analysing the cephalometric radiographs. It also enlists the skeletal and dental landmarks and planes needed for the analysis. Details regarding Down’s, Steiner’s, Tweed’s, and Wit’s analyses have been explained in this chapter. With the new era of digitalization, this chapter also highlights the recent advances made in Cephalometrics, providing information about the different computer-based programs and smartphone applications available for efficient landmark identification and analysis. The fundamental essence of the chapter is to help both undergraduate and even post-graduate pediatric students to have the basic knowledge and information about Cephalometrics, including its advancements made.

Keywords: Cephalometrics , Cephalometric analysis, Cephalograms, Dentofacial pedodontics, Orthodontic.