Relationship between the Functional Variation of Tongue in Developmental Stages and the Three-dimensional Morphologies of Palate and Dentition.

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The purposes of this study were to combine the morphological analysis of dentition and palate by the noncontact three-dimensional measurement device with the functional analysis of tongue by the ultrasound diagnostic equipment, constructing the integrated analytic system for children who seemed to have functional variation of the tongue movement in developmental stages. This study also aimed the clinical application of this system, such as the diagnosis of open bite cases before the treatment and the evaluation of treatment effect.At the first year the ultrasound diagnostic equipment (Toshiba Medical, SSA-250A) were introduced to determine the most suitable echo window for the functional analysis of tongue movement. The cephalostat unit with the probe stabilizer was fabricated to compare echo images quantitatively between intra/inter individuals. From the first year to the second year, both the morphology of the palate and the tongue surface movement of young patients on the frontal plane with or without open bite were evaluated by the integrated system. There seemed to be wider variation in the palate volume before the deciduous canines line of the tongue-thrust group than that of normal group. It is also suggested that a child with tongue thrust swallows using a large depressed area in the tongue, whereas a normal child without tongue thrust forms a rather narrow groove in the central portion of the tongue when swallowing.At the third year, effects of the habit breakers on the tongue surface movement for patients with open bite were evaluated by the ultrasound images. Applying removable habit breakers with the tongue crib to the tongue-thrust group made the momentum of the marginal tongue surface of them smaller, although the groove in the central portion of the tongue of the tongue-thrust group were still wider than that of the normal-group when swallowing.