Evaluation of hard and soft tissue outcomes of two different cephalometric tracing and analysis techniques

Since they were introduced, cephalometric radiographies have been widely used both in scientific research and clinical orthodontics. Cephalometric analysis, which is based on angular, linear measurements of hard and soft tissues that are determined on lateral cephalometric radyographies, is an essential technique in orthodontic diagnosis, treatment planning and in evaluating the results of treatment. Recently, cephalometric analysis has been carried out by computer programs as well as by the traditional manual tracing.The aim of this study was to comparatively evaluate the reproducibility, reliability at speed of cephalometric analysis using two different cephalometric analysis programs with those of hand tracing.In this study, hard and soft tissue measurements of 100 patients were compared using the traditional method and two different cephalometric analysis programs (Dolphin Imaging Version 10.5, Dolphin Imaging, Chatsworth, Calif, ABD and Nemoceph Dental Studio NX 2006 Version 6 Dental Analysis & Treatment Planning Software, Nemotech, Madrid, Spain). Speed, reliability and reproducibility properties were evaluated.Statistical analysis was done using the NCSS-PASS statistical 2007 program (329 North 1000 east, Kaysville, Utah 84037, USA). Two way random intraclass correlation coefficient and 95 % confidence interval were used to determine intra-examiner measurements and conventional and two different computer based cephalometric analysis measurements. The absolute differences and % variability were also calculated. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize the data as mean and standard deviation. Paired t-test was employed in conventional and computer based analysis measurements. One way ANOVA was used to compare the tracing times of the conventional and two different computer based cephalometric analysis methods. Results were evaluated within p<0.05 significance level and 95 % confidence interval.In conclusion, a statistically acceptable degree of concordance was observed between traditional tracing method and skeletal, dental and soft tissue measurements with using computer programs. During the comparison of the two techniques in terms of tracing duration, the speed of traditional hand tracing method was significantly slower than that of the contemporary computerized tracing techniques (p=0,0001).