Vertical dimensions of occlusion from anthropometric measurements of fingers in dentulous subjects

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2017 in the subject Medicine - Dentistry, , course: prosthodontics and crown & bridges, language: English, abstract: This disseratation has the purpose to find the correlation between the vertical dimension of occlusion (VDO) and length of fingers in U.P. west region. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 medically fit dentate subjects comprising of 100 males and 100 females. Anthropometric measurements of vertical dimension of occlusion, length of index finger, length of little finger and distance from tip of thumb and tip of index finger of right hand were recorded clinically using digital vernier caliper. Correlation between VDO and length of fingers was studied using Spearman's Coefficient. For the execution of regression command and Preparation of predictable equations to estimate VDO, IBM statistical package for social sciences software version 24.0 was used. VDO was significantly and positively correlated in the parameters studied. Correlation of VDO was strongest for length of Index Finger (r- 0.288), whereas in males it was strongest for length of little finger (r- 0.102). VDO estimation using regression equation had a standard error of ?76 in males and ?5 in females for length of Index finger, ?2 and ?4 in males and females respectively for little finger, ? 1.09 and ? 9.6 in males and females respectively for distance from tip of thumb to tip of index finger. Also, a fixed ratio for male (i.e.1:1.07) and for female (i.e. 1:1.24) and a total average ratio is seen (i.e. 1:1.0698) in the U.P. west region population. The conlusion of the disseratation shows, that the length of the Index finger can be helpful in estimating VDO of females and for males estimation of VDO can be drawn from length of the little finger. As mentioned in the literature, this method is reliable, reproducible, simple, economical and non-invasive. Hence, this method can be used in conjunction with other methods for the estimation of vertical dimension of occlusion for appropriate measurements.