Reliability of Software Prediction of Post Orthodontic Treatment Changes

Aim The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of Dolphin VTO prediction in patients requiring extraction treatment by comparing the VTO-predicted values and post-treatment values. Method Digital pre and post-treatment lateral cephalograms of 52 patients having Class I bimaxillary protrusion were taken and transferred in Dolphin Imaging software for analysis and VTO prediction. A composite analysis was made containing 17 dental and soft tissue parameters (Holdaway, Mc Namara, Rakosi, Steiners, and Tweed analysis). Results A comparison between post-treatment and VTO-predicted values showed that software was able to predict soft tissue changes accurately in regions such as nose, inferior sulcus depth, and chin region ( p > .05). In dental changes, software was able to predict the inclination of upper incisors to Sn and palatal plane correctly ( p > .05). Parameters for other areas such as upper and lower lip, position of upper and lower incisor show significant difference in their VTO and post-treatment values ( p < .05) showing inaccuracy of the software. Conclusion The VTO prediction of dental and soft tissue changes was significantly different from the post-treatment values for parameters such as superior sulcus depth, lower lip to h line, subnasal to h line, upper lip thickness, lip strain, nasolabial angle, interincisal angle, Ui-NA, Li-NB, and IMPA. For nasal prominence, inferior sulcus depth, chin thickness, UI-SN, and UI-PP, there was no significant difference seen. Since, for most of the parameters, a significant difference was found between the post-treatment and the predicted values, so it was inferred that the software-based VTO prediction could not be fully relied for any treatment planning.