Maxillary buccal cortical plate inclination at mini-screw insertion sites

Objective: To evaluate whether buccal cortical bone inclination varies for the maxillary alveolar processes of adult patients with decreased, normal, and increased facial heights. Materials and Methods: Cone-beam computed tomography images of 135 adult patients, including 49 hypodivergent subjects (26 women, 23 men), 40 hyperdivergent subjects (24 women, 16 men), and 46 normodivergent (25 women, 21 men) were analyzed. Cortical bone inclination measurements were made relative to the occlusal plane. Cross-sectional slices of the maxilla were taken at interdental sites from the distal aspect of maxillary canine to the mesial aspect of maxillary second molar. Results: Analysis of variance indicated significant differences (P < .05) between the angles formed by the line tangent to the cortical bone and the occlusal plane among the vertical facial types for the regions between canine and first premolar and between second premolar and first molar at miniscrew insertion sites. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that vertical facial pattern should be taken into consideration when adjusting the insertion angle of miniscrews at the maxillary buccal region.