A correlational study of mandibular deviation and coronal trunk imbalance in adolescents with idiopathic and congenital scoliosis

OBJECTIVE: To explore the correlation between scoliosis and mandibular deviation by analyzing the degree and direction of coronal trunk imbalance and maxillofacial deviation in patients with idiopathic and congenital scoliosis. METHODS: A total of 68 patients(scoliosis group), among whom 33 adolescents were diagnosed with idiopathic scoliosis(IS group) and 35 congenital scoliosis(CS group),and 21 orthopedically healthy adolescents volunteers served as control group were involved in this survey. All the patients and volunteers were undertaken the coronal full-length X-ray radiographs of spine and craniofacial CBCT. Landmarks and lines were recorded to measure these films. ANOVA LSD test was applied to evaluate the difference between mandibular deviation and trunk balance among three groups. The relationship of spine coronal morphology, trunk balance and mandibular deviation was evaluated with the Pearson correlation method. RESULTS: ) were significantly correlated with mandibular deviation, and presented a negative linear trend. And the degree of mandibular deviation had a negative correlation with oblique angle of cervical spine，but no linear correlation was found (p=0.06). CONCLUSION: Patients with scoliosis have varying degrees of mandibular deviation and body posture imbalance. The direction of mandibular deviation was opposite to the direction of oblique cervical spine and the same to the higher side of imbalanced shoulder. There is a correlation between mandibular development and the abnormal posture of the neck and shoulder, suggesting that multidisciplinary early detection, evaluation and treatment for scoliotic patients or high risk population is necessary.