AAOF Michigan Growth Study Overview

The Michigan Growth Study

Curator: James A. McNamara DDS, PhD

Institution:Department of Orthodontics and Pediatric Dentistry, University of Michigan

The Michigan Growth Study is comprised of annual records taken on students enrolled in the University School, a laboratory school housed in the School of Education on the Ann Arbor campus. Data collection began in 1935, at which time medical, dental, psychological, and anthropologic data were gathered. The taking of cephalograms began in 1953 and continued routinely until about 1970, when the University School closed and data collection was discontinued. Several recall studies have been conducted since that time, the most recently in 2007. The subjects in the UMGS were primarily of Northern European ancestry. In the overall sample, there is a bias toward Class II malocclusion and increased lower anterior facial height, with only a very few individuals presenting with Class III malocclusion. There are 18 boys and 30 girls with longitudinal records taken at the intervals deemed ideal by the AAOF application, but there are multiple other series useful for comparison in routine clinical trials.

There are records on 721 individuals in the UMGS, and there are 150 families with more than one member included in the data base. Overall there are 3,266 observations, during which the following dental records were obtained: Lateral cephalogram closed, lateral cephalogram open, posteroanterior, lateral obliques (2), and hand/wrist films.

We have published two major atlases, one on the cephalometric standards (N=84) of the population and one on the dental cast measurements (N=208). In addition, there have been 66 papers published in refereed journals and well as eight other books or chapters in books written by the curator and his colleagues that have used data form the Michigan Growth Study. This collection of records also has been used my many other individual over the years whose works are not included in this listing.