Association of Anterior and Posterior occlusal planes with skeletal class I, class II and class III malocclusion

Introduction: The occlusal plane is a very vital in stomatognathic system and the association between anterior occlusal planes and posterior occlusal plane plays an important role during orthodontic treatments. Methods: Lateral cephalometric radiographs of 270 adult patients of the different classes of malocclusion were used. Several angular measurements were measured and compared among all study groups to evaluate the existence of relationship between AOP and POP with skeletal and vertical patterns. Results: The skeletal patterns showed a significant difference in anterior occlusal plane angle relative to both SN plane and FH plane among all classes of malocclusion (p-value =0.001**) having a steeper inclined plane in Class II and flat inclined plane in Class III. POP in relation to FH plane and SN plane showed lowest angle in skeletal Class III and highest in Skeletal Class I patients. Conclusion: The occlusal planes were found to have an impact on the jaw base where the variation in its angulation of different occlusal planes had affected both sagittal and vertical facial patterns. AOP relative to SN and FH were steeper in Class II and flat in Class III, while the POP relative to FH showed the same value in Classes II and III. Keywords: Anterior occlusal plane, Posterior occlusal plane, Malocclusion, Skeletal patterns, Vertical pattern, Lateral cephalometric radiograph.