Abstract
This study was performed to investigate the changes of head posture according to natural standing or sitting posture. Twenty seven healthy dental students without any signs and symptoms of temporomandibular disorders participated in this study. Cervical resting posture (CRP) of the head in sagittal plane was measured by Cervical-Range-of-Motion $^\textregistered$(CROM, U.S.A.) and lateral cephalograph was taken in natural posture. The items related to angle in cephalograph were the angles of cranial and cervical inclination to true vertical line(VER/NSL, VER/AML), the angles of cervical inclination to nasion-sella line(CVT/NSL, OPT/NSL), the angles of comical inclination to horizontal line(CVT/HOR, OPT/HOR), the angle of cervical lordosis(CVT/OPT). The items related to line measurement were the distance from subocciput to Cl(Dl), Cl to C2(D2), C2 to C3(D3), C3 to C4(D4), the upper(PNS to posterior pharyngeal wall) and the lower(tongue base to posterior pharyngeal wall) pharyngeal space, the distance from nation to mention(Na-Me), and the radius of comical curvature from the first comical vertebra(Cl ) to the fifth cervical vertebra(C5). The data were analyzed with SAS/STAT program. The obtained results were as follows : 1. Most items related to angular measurement showed significant difference between in standing and sitting posture. The angles of CRP, CVT/NSL, OPT/NSL, CVT/HOR, OPT/HOR, and CVT/OPT were high in sitting posture, but the angles of VER/NSL, VER/NSL were low in sitting posture. 2. In vertebral distance, only the distance between C3 and C4 was differed by the posture, which decreased in sitting posture. In sitting posture, the distance from nasion to menton(Na-Me) was longer, but the radius was shorter than in standing posture. 3. Correlationship in angular measurements was almost same in both postures. Ceervical resting posture(CRP) was correlated with VER/NSL, VER\ulcornerNSL was correlated with CRP, CVT/NSL, and OPT/NSL, VER/AML was correlated with CVT/HOR, OPT/HOR, CVT/OPT, and the angle of cervical lordosis(CVT/OPT) was correlated with the radius. 4. Correlationship in linear measurement was observed only in among D3, D4, and radius. And the Na-Me was not correlated with any other items. From this results, The author concluded that the head posture in sitting was mote backward extended than in standing.