The morphometric analysis for Class III malocclusion of chin cup therapy

The morphometry has been widely applied to evaluate the information associated with biological shape. This study investigated the chin cup treatment effects for Class III malocclusion by comparing the chin shapes at two stages for treated and untreated groups. The employed morphometric approaches including thin-plate spline and strain tensor analysis. Other than the distribution of size and shape changes from strain tensor analysis, the principal vectors plot was also presented in this study. From the results, it was observed that high consistent existed between the morphometric outcomes and clinical diagnoses. The plot of principal vectors from strain tensor analysis could provide a more visual interpretation of the shape change. Accordingly, the strain tensor analysis could offer valueable information in the treatment effect of chin cup in Class III malocclusion.