Abstract
Context: The dental arch is one of the most important references for orthodontic planning and treatment. The principal goal of orthodontic treatment is to maintain the stability and aesthetics of the arch. Thus, it is crucial to identify and preserve the patient's arch form during orthodontic therapy otherwise the probability of relapse will increase.
Aims: To determine the average dental arch form and size for adult's Saudi population in Makkah region.
Methods and Material: This is a cross-sectional study done in Makkah city. Dental casts of 126 Orthodontically untreated individuals with normal occlusion were selected from multiple centers. For each model, the intermolar width, intercanine width, molar depth and canine depth measured using a digital caliper. Each dental arch study models were classified into tapered, ovoid, or square form. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 23.
Results: The most common form was ovoid (46.7%) followed by square (29.3%) and tapered (24.0%). There was no statistically significant difference between male and female regarding the intercanine width &depth as well as intermolar depth. Male had larger arch size than female the difference is statistically significant at intermolar distance.
Conclusions: The most frequently seen arch form in Saudi population at Makkah province was the ovoid arch form followed by the square arch form, the least frequent type shown was tapered. Male showed larger arch size than female, that was a statistically significant at the intermolar distance among the selected population. No significant difference regarding the arch form was noticed between gender.