Tooth Inclination Protractor: Validity and Reliability Kaur Harmanpreet1,*, Kumar Reena R.2, Miglani Anil3 1PG Student, Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, DJ College of Dental Sciences and Research, Modinagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India 2Principal and Dean, DJ College of Dental Sciences and Research, Modinagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India 3Professor, Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, DJ College of Dental Sciences and Research, Modinagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India *Address for correspondence: Harmanpreet Kaur, Email id: drharman.88@gmail.com
Abstract Adequate incisor inclination influences aesthetics, patient’s self-perception, function, stability and phonetics. Incisor inclination was traditionally assessed by lateral cephalogram, prone to digitising errors. Techniques utilising dental casts evolved, but none is routinely used because of unreliability, cost, time consumption or requirement of experienced personnel to record and process the data. The aim of this study was to critically assess the validity and reliability of tooth inclination protractor (TIP) in recording incisor crown inclination and to compare it with traditional lateral cephalograms. TIP and lateral cephalograms were used for recording the following angles: maxillary incisor to palatal plane, maxillary incisor to occlusal plane, mandibular incisor to mandibular plane and mandibular incisor to occlusal plane of 30 subjects with class I malocclusion. TIP recorded maxillary incisor crown inclination 18° less and mandibular crown inclination 10° less than cephalogram. The TIP was not reliable, yet it is a valuable tool for replacing mid-treatment and post-treatment cephalogram. Top Keywords Maxillary incisor, Inclination, Cephalogram, Tooth inclination protractor. Top |