Retrospective Study of Condylar Distraction between Two Groups of Facial Biotypes in the Population of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico

The discrepancy between the Centric Relation (CR) position and the Maximum Intercuspation (MI) position is known as centric slide. This happens in occasions where the occlusion is not stable in the CR position and a displacement towards the more stable MI is generated, it differs a lot depending on the clinical use, most authors are in favor of the CR in the planning of occlusal rehabilitation and orthodontics. For this reason, it was decided to provide a retrospective study correlating the amount of condylar distraction prior to orthodontic treatment to analyze whether the hyperdivergent or hypodivergent facial pattern presents a greater amount of distraction in the 3 axial dimensions. The study was conducted by reviewing patient records from the orthodontic postgraduate program at the Mexicali School of Dentistry, which treats adolescents and adults. Subjects were initially selected based on age, followed by Jarabak cephalometric measurements of facial-skeletal characteristics to generate 2 matched groups of 10 subjects each: dolichofacial pattern and brachyfacial pattern. The final sample selected consisted of 20 patients between the ages of 14 and 32 years, with a mean age of 21.25 years. The data obtained from the present study conclude that the facial biotype where the greatest condylar distraction was observed in terms of the three axes; vertical, horizontal and transversal prior to orthodontic treatment, was in the dolichofacial pattern.