Objective:To investigate the area of sagittal upper airway in men with malocclusion in early permanent dentition

and to find out the relationship of the area and craniofacial characteristics.Methods:Fifty cephalometric films of nonsnoring males with malocclusion aged from 11 to 15 years before treatment were collected and measured with modified Delaire cephalometric analysis.The results were assessed by SPSS13.0 software package

and multiple regression analysis was used to examine the relationship of upper airway area and craniofacial characteristics variation.Results:The area of nasopharyngeal space(NA)correlated with the length of maxillary

the inclination of ramus

percentage of cranial height to cranial base length

percentage of maxillary area to cranial base and the length of ramus.The area of palatopharyngeal space(PA)correlated with percentage of cranial height to cranial base

the length of mandibular body and percentage of maxillary area to cranial base.The area of hypopharyngeal space(HA)correlated with the inclination of palatal plane. The area of laryngopharyngeal space(LA)correlated with the length of ramus

anterior mandibular height

the percentage of cranial height to cranial base and percentage of mandibular area to cranial base.Conclusion:The sagittal pharyngeal area of nonsnoring males with malocclusion is substantially correlated to the craniofacial skeletal structures around.