Measuring the Craniofacial System
Art is long, and time is fleeting, .
And our hearts, though stout and brave, .
Still, like muffled drums, are beating.
Funeral marches to the grave.
In this excerpt from "A Psalm of Life," Henry Wadsworth Longfellow reminds us that at best life is short; and one lifetime is not sufficiently long to solve the mysteries of the anatomy and the function of the human craniofacial complex.
Even though man will never fully understand these abstruse secrets of the craniofacial complex, still if one generation will approach the study systematically, then subsequent generations will have the opportunity to add valid concepts.
To start this systematic approach, it would seem wise to first agree on the best method of superimposition of head film tracings-to establish vertical and horizontal stable landmarks, parallel and perpendicular with the earth's surface. The meeting of scientists held in Frankfort, Germany in 1929 found that a line from porion to the lower border of the orbit, the eye/ear plane, is a landmark as nearly parallel to the earth's surface as can be found.
Even though this line, which we call Frankfort, varies with growth, we can "freeze" it by using the earliest Frankfort plane as a basis for all subsequent planes. This seems to be the ultimate scientific approach for the analysis of the human head.
If the orthodontic profession can agree on these principles, it will be a start toward real progress. We must not continue to measure the craniofacial complex perpendicular to line S-N, since it is not parallel to the earth's surface-not "square with the world." By establishing scientific stable landmarks both vertically and horizontally, we will have a firm basis on which future generations can build.
This will mean that we need to redo the work of Björk and base the analysis on the frankfort plane. This would also mean that we should revere the name, "Björk," for his having had the visionary inspiration to conduct all the wonderful research which has blessed our profession. The name, Björk, will always have an honored place in our history.
In effect, this would take us back to 1929 when B. Holly Broadbent invented the equipment for producing the cephalometric radiogram. This would involve discarding all methods of analysis which have been used in the past seventy years. Our generation would be the first to have the courage to start over again. The methods of measurement, discovered in 1960 and used by a few investigators, were close enough to the ideal to establish valid concepts, but were not completely accurate because they were measured from SN, which slopes downward posteriorly.
For this we should not despair, but be glad that orthodontic research is now on a firm scientific basis for the first time in history; and each generation can build on the work of the previous generation.
Articles No. 1, 24 and 41 of the Schudy Chronicles on the Internet report concepts on which such a system of measurements can be based. The "sella horizontal line" parallel to the earliest Frankfort line can be used as a basis for vertically measuring all anatomical structures in the craniofacial complex. The "Great Divide" is a vertical meridian which divides structures which grow forward from those which grow posteriorly. This line, drawn downward from sella perpendicular to Frankfort can be used as a basis for horizontally measuring all structures in the complex. This will establish a system of scientific measurements on which future generations can build.
It is hoped and expected that there will be a young person or persons of superior intellect who will be divinely inspired to intensely study orthodontics for an entire career and thereby make a noble contribution.
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