[Morphological relationship between maxillary sinus and skeletal facial type].

The purpose of this study was to investigate the variation of the morphology of maxillary sinus in relation to the skeletal facial type. The materials consisted of lateral cephalometric roentgenograms of 100 adult Japanese females. Nine features representing the form of maxillary sinus were selected and the principal component analysis was carried out to determine the characteristics of sinus morphology. The following results were obtained. The form of maxillary sinus seems to mainly influence (or be influenced by) the antero-posterior facial symptom rather than the vertical facial symptom. A case which had a large SNA angle presented a tendency to have a maxillary sinus with a larger antero-inferior portion and more upright anterior wall. The results indicate that the occlusal function may relate to the formation of the maxillary sinus.