ACCURACY OF THE TOOTH INCLINATION PROTRACTOR TO MEASURE MAXILLARY INCISOR CROWN INCLINATION IN A SAMPLE POPULATION OF PESHAWAR

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the accuracy of measurements of incisor inclination by tooth inclination protractor (TIP) versus lateral cephalogram. Methods: Pre-treatment dental casts and lateral cephalograms of 200 patients were selected from the Orthodontics Department of Khyber College of Dentistry, Peshawar in this cross-sectional study. Maxillary incisor inclination was measured on the dental casts using the custom-made TIP and on the lateral cephalograms. Correlation coefficients (r) were calculated. A paired t test was applied to find the mean difference between the incisor inclinations calculated by the two methods. P value ?0.05 was considered significant. Results: Dental casts and lateral cephalograms of 149 female and 51 male patients were used, with mean age of 17.91 ± 5.07 years. The mean labiolingual inclination of maxillary central incisor was 18.31 ± 8.17° on the dental casts, measured with TIP, and 21.24 ± 10.34° on the lateral cephalogram (angle between facial tangent line of maxillary central incisor and occlusal plane perpendicular). There was a moderate correlation between the two methods (r=0.658). Paired t-test showed a difference of 2.94 ± 7.91° between two methods, which was insignificant. Conclusion: TIP is comparable with lateral cephalogram for measuring maxillary incisor proclination.