A correlative study of sella turcica bridging and dental anomalies related to size, shape, structure, number and eruption of teeth

OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study is to get a wider and clearer idea about the relationship between sella turcica bridging and the type of dental anomalies related to size, shape, number, structure and eruption of teeth. MATERIALS AND METHODS: For the present study, 50 pretreatment lateral cephalometric radiographs showing complete sella turcica bridging were retrieved from the 500 existing case records of patients. The control group consisted of 50 pretreatment lateral cephalograms without sella turcica bridging retrieved from the same case records by using simple random sampling. After collection of the samples, retrospective study was performed with the analysis of patient records to assess any associated dental anomaly in patients with sella turcica bridging and patients without sella turcica bridging. Shafer's classification of morphological variations in size, shape, structure, number and eruption of teeth was used to analyze and group the dental anomalies. RESULTS: The incidence of dental anomalies related to number and size of teeth was found to be higher in cases with sella turcica bridging. CONCLUSION: Lateral cephalogram is used by orthodontist routinely for diagnosis and treatment planning; it can be used as a prediction tool for dental anomalies as well. Early detection of skeletal anomalies can be used to forecast the presence of dental anomalies later in life, which will help the clinician to adopt preventive measures.