Introduction. The objective of this study was to evaluate tongue position during deglutition with respect to the occlusal plane in class III patients with teeth in centric occlusion. Materials and methods. 24 lateral cephalometric radiographs of a group of 30 class III patients were randomly selected and divided into two groups: the former for class III patients with open bite, and the latter group for class III patients with inverted overbite. The angles formed by the plane of the tongue and the occlusal plane obtained in all samples were compared between the two studied groups. The T-test was used to evaluate the differences among the studied angles. Results and discussion. The average value of the anterior angles in patients with inverted overbite was lower than that of the anterior-lower angles in class III patients with open bite. Anterior-lower angles with values between 24.17 and 34.08 were observed for class III with inverted overbite. The angles were significantly different (p< .oo1). In both studied cases. Conclusions. Tongue posture is significantly different during deglutition in class III patients with open bite and inverted overbite
Keywords:- class III patients
- inverted overbite
- open bite
- tongue position