THE MAXILLARY ARCH AND CEPHALOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS: COMPARING ETHNIC MALAYS AND ETHNIC CHINESE IN MALAYSIA

A cross-sectional study was conducted to compare maxillary arch and head measurements between ethnic Malays and Chinese. Mean ages were 23.5 years (Malay) and 21.1 years (Chinese), and both groups were brachycephalic with the cephalic index 86.4 for Malay and 85.9 for Chinese which is not significantly different between them. Means of anterior arch width (AAW), posterior-arch-width (PAW) and arch-length were significantly different between two groups. AAW and PAW were significantly different from their corresponding indices for Malays but not for Chinese. The Pont’s and Korkhaus’ Indices could not be applied to the Malays but moderately to the Chinese.