CONGENITAL DENTOFACIAL MALFORMATIONS IN RATS INDUCED BY MATERNAL NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCY

A CEPHALOMETRIC APPRAISAL

¹ Departments of Anatomy and Pediatrics, and the Children's Hospital Research Foundation, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio

Congenital dentofacial malformations induced in rats by a maternal nutritional deficiency have been described. The resulting malrelationships and "malocclusions" have been evaluated by cephalometric methods. It was found that the facial angles were not equally affected by a changed prenatal chemical environment and that different parts of the facial skeleton were retarded disproportionately. Since the corpus of the mandible was more reduced than the maxilla, prerequisites for malocclusion were present.