Reproducibility of a nonradiographic approach to assess classII hyperdivergent patient

Hyperdivergent patients with Class II malocclusion have been associated with higher prevalence of sleep disorders by airway obstruction, higher prevalence of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and changes in craniocervical posture. Simplified methods for identification of this individuals in epidemiological studies have not been developed until now. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to test the reproducibility of the use of the facial paquimeter in the diagnosis of the skeletal class II hyperdivergent patient, as well as enable the possibility to analyze their craniocervical posture. Methods: (As the project involves human, it was submitted and approved by the research ethics committee of the University Estadual Paulista “Julio Mesquita Filho”) 26 pre-orthodontics patients of both genders with age ranging from 7 to 11 years old were randomly selected. In total, 15 variables were measured directly on the face of each patient. In this prospective study the Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) populational was used at 95 % of confidence. Results: It can be observed that the intra-observer evaluation of the ICCs populational value is above 0.75 for most variables, indicating that for these variables the intra-observer reproducibility is good. The replicability of the variables FNP, TrN.VER and FH.VER may be weak (ICC between 0.40 and 0.75). None of the variables have poor replicability. Also, the inter-observer reproducibility showed at the value of ICCs populational above 0.75 for most variables, indicating that for these variables the intra-observer reproducibility is good. The reproducibility of the variables ANB, FMA and FH.VER may be weak (ICC between 0.40 and 0.75). The reproducibility is bad for the variable FNP. Conclusion: We conclude that the reproducibility for almost all both linear and angular measurements useful for characterizing facial morphology of the class II hyperdivergent using the facial paquimeter is good. The access of the craniocervical posture showed a weak reproducibility there for this instrument is not indicated. This method might be a good choice for large- scale epidemiological studies.