Abstract

The influence of the X and Y chromosomes on the size and shape of the dental arches and occlusion as well as on craniofacial cephalometric dimensions, angles and dimensional ratios is studied. The material consists of Finnish patients with sex chromosome aneuploidies and normal population controls from the “Kvantti Study” series, which was collected in the 1970’s and 1980’s at the Institute of Dentistry, University of Turku. The patients are five individuals with complete testicular feminization (CTF), eight 47,XYY males, and fourteen 45,X/46,XX females. The controls are population female and male controls, as well as five first degree relatives of the individuals with CTF, three of the 47,XYY males and nine of the 45,X/46,XX females studied. Dental arch dimensions and occlusion as well as craniofacial cephalometric dimensions, angles and dimensional ratios are measured from dental study casts and standardized lateral cephalograms.

The results show that the presence of the Y chromosome in 46,XY females and the supernumerary Y chromosomal gene(s) in 47,XYY males result in the enlargement of the dental arches and craniofacial dimensions without substantial effects on dimensional ratios and plane angles, but with special influence on the growth of the mandibular corpus. The reduction of X chromosomal genetic material in 45,X/46,XX females results in the reduction of craniofacial dimensions, affecting dimensional ratios and especially plane angles of the cranial base.