Postnatal width changes in the internal structures of the human mandible: a longitudinal three-dimensional cephalometric study using implants.

This paper presents case-specific quantitative evidence of the systematic lateral displacement of metallic implants in the mandibles of treated and untreated human subjects between the ages of 8.5 and 15.5 years. This evidence appears to be consistent with the inference of small, but systematic increases in distance between the internal structures of the two sides of the osseous mandible during growth. Such a conclusion, however, is inconsistent with traditional beliefs that the internal structures of the mandibular symphysis fuse at the midline during the first post-natal year and remain dimensionally constant thereafter. We recently published evidence of statistically significant transverse displacement of metallic implants in the mandibular body region for 12 of 28 subjects for whom longitudinal data were available. Of the twelve subjects for whom statistically significant changes were observed, widening occurred in eleven cases and narrowing in one. Matching data are now available on concurrent ramus changes for 22 of the same 28 subjects, including 11 of the 12 for whom statistically significant width changes had previously been noted in the body region. In eight of these 11 subjects, statistically significant widening in the ramus region was also observed. No subject had statistically significant widening in the ramus region without also having statistically significant widening in the body region. No subject had statistically significant trans-ramus narrowing.