The Associatin of Sella Turcica Morphology and Dimension with Craniofacial and Dental Anomalies

Abstract

Sella turcica, which keeping the pituitary gland inside, is frequently used in cephalometric analysis during the orthodontic treatment planning because it can be easily detected in lateral cephalometric radiographs. Embryologically, the cartilage forming the anterior wall of the sella turcica develops from the neural crest cells. Similarly, it has been reported that the dental epithelial progenitor cells and maxillary, palatal and frontonasal development regions also generated from neural crest cells and these cells are effective in sella turcica bridging and tooth development and eruption. Thus, in the literature, the variations in sella turcica dimensions and morphology has been associated with different craniofacial and dental anomalies due to its relationship with pituitary gland, development origin, and anatomic position. At this point, the correct analysis of sella turcica, provide early diagnosis of the anomalies and pathologies that can be arise in the future. However, it has been observed that conflicting results were obtained from these studies in which subjects with different ethnical origin, age, and craniofacial morphologies were evaluated and different radiographic techniques were used. In this review, it was aimed to examine these studies which were evaluated the association of sella turcica dimensions and morphology with different craniofacial and dental anomalies.