Facial patterns of obstructive sleep apnea patients using Ricketts’ method

Abstract

To analyze the facial patterns of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) patients, we took lateral cephalograms of 31 OSAS patients and 26 non-OSAS controls and utilized Ricketts’ method. In addition, we measured the hyoid bone position, the length of mandibular plane to H-point, the length of soft palate, and lower pharynx. The facial patterns of OSAS patients were dolico, the hyoid bone was positioned low, the soft palate was longer and the width of the airway was narrower than that of the non-OSAS controls.