Orthodontic treatment planning: do orthodontists treat to cephalometric norms?

Cephalometric norms are important to orthodontists in their diagnosis, treatment, and evaluation of orthodontic treatment outcomes. The purpose of the present study is to establish if orthodontists treat and finish their cases to the cephalometric means or norms. Pre- and post-cephalometric radiographs and dental casts of 35 orthodontically treated cases were analyzed. The Kappa test, Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test, Paired t- test, and Z-test were used for the statistical analysis of the data. The result revealed that orthodontists do not reach the cephalometric mean values post-treatment. However, sagittal maxillomandibular relationship and interlabial gap are the main areas of improvements. This leads to improvement of soft tissue esthetics by camouflaging the skeletal and dental relationship.