To determine the prevalence of facial asymmetry in orthodontic patients before treatment.
Materials and method: 384 subjects (220 girls and 164 boys) aged between 6 and 23 years (mean age 10.11 years) who asked for orthodontic treatment were included in the study. The parallelism of horizontal planes, the deviation of the chin and of the nasal pyramid were appreciated by extra-oral examination. Age, gender, socio-ecological environment, type of dentition, type of malocclusions were recorded for all patients.
Results: In the experimental group, facial asymmetry was present in 4.7% of patients,
chin deviation in 5.7% of them and deviation of the nasal pyramid in 3.4% cases. A significant correlation was evidenced between facial asymmetry and type of malocclusions, age and type of dentition.
Conclusions: The results obtained show that facial asymmetry in orthodontic patients is an important element for the clinician, its detection being mandatory prior to initiating any orthodontic treatment.