Abstract
Objective: This study aimed to analyze the morphology of the hypoplasic mandible and its evolution during the growth period to better understand how it differs from the pediatric healthy mandible. Method: Three-dimensional mandibular models of hypoplasic and healthy children aged from 39 gestational weeks to 7 years old were analyzed with a morphometric method including data clustering. Morphological distinctions between pathological and healthy mandibles were highlighted. Bilateral and unilateral mandibular hypoplasia were distinguished. Results: The study sample was composed of 31 hypoplasic children and as many sex- and age-matched healthy children. Morphological distinctions between pathological and healthy mandibles were highlighted only from the first year of life. In bilateral hypoplasia, the overall mandibular dimensions were reduced while there was only a ramus asymmetry in unilateral mandibular hypoplasia (mean ± SD of the difference between the Grp03c and Grp03b subgroups: 6.80 ± 6.37 – P value = 1.64e –3 for the height of the left ramus versus 0.18 ± 4.18 – P value = .82 for the height of the right ramus). Supervised classification trees were built to identify the pathology and discriminate unilateral from bilateral mandibular hypoplasia (prediction rates = 81% and 84%, respectively). Conclusions: Based on a morphometric analysis, we demonstrated that mandibular hypoplasia significantly impacts the mandibular morphology only from the first year of life, with a distinction between bilateral and unilateral hypoplasia.