Association between nasal septum deviation and transverse maxillary development: A retrospective cross-sectional study

Introduction: The few studies investigating the relationship between nasal septum deviation (NSD) and maxillary development, using different assessment methods and the age of subjects, reported contradicting results. Methods: The association between NSD and transverse maxillary parameters was analyzed using 141 preorthodontic full-skull cone-beam computed tomography scans (mean age, 27.4 +/- 9.01 years). Six maxillary, 2 nasal, and 3 dentoalveolar landmarks were measured. The intraclass correlation coefficient was used to assess intrarater and interrater reliability. The correlation between NSD and transverse maxillary parameters was analyzed using the Pearson correlation coefficient. Each transverse maxillary parameter was compared among 3 groups of different degrees of severity using the analysis of variance test. Transverse maxillary parameters were also compared between the more and less deviated nasal septum sides using the independent t test. Results: A correlation between deviated septal width and palatal arch depth (r 5 0.2, P <0.013) and significant differences in palatal arch depth (P <0.05) among 3 NSD severity groups classified with deviated septal width was noted. There was no correlation between septal deviated angle and transverse maxillary parameters and no significant difference for transverse maxillary parameters among the 3 groups of NSD severity classified by septal deviated angle. No significant difference in transverse maxillary parameters was found when comparing the more and the less deviated sides. Conclusions: This study suggests that NSD can affect palatal vault morphology. The magnitude of NSD may be a factor associated with transverse maxillary growth disturbance.