Assessment of the effect of skeletal development on facial soft tissue morphology in young adults with a three dimensional facial photographic technique

Aim: The purpose of this prospective study was to examine facial soft tissues and establish norms and determine the measures that are important in the formation of facial characteristics in young adults having different vertical growth pattern using digital stereophotogrametry photographic technique. Material and Method: This study, lateral cephalometric radiographs and three dimensional (3D) photographs of 152 individuals between the age of 14 and 20 (112 female, 40 male: mean age: 15.89 years) was performed. SN / GoGn angle was taken as reference using lateral cephalometric films and groups were composed according to vertical face development pattern (hypodivergent, n=50; normodivergent, n=51; and hyperdivergent, n=51). Then the effect of skeletal development on facial soft tissue morphology was evaluated with 3D facial photographs. In our study, 3D records were obtained with "3dMD Face" (3dMD TM Ltd., Atlanta, GA, USA) system and analyzed with "3dMD Vultus" (3dMD TM Ltd., Atlanta, GA, USA) software program. For statistical analysis, shapiro wilks test, oneway Anova test and tukey HDS analysis were used. Results: When the obtained results were examined, it was observed that significant differences were more concentrated in the face height length parameters. On the other hand, differences in length and width values, especially in face ratios, associated with soft tissue morphology were found to be statistically insignificant. Significant differences in the development of vertical direction were found to be concentrated between the hypodivergent and hyperdivergen groups. Conclusions: It has been shown that the effect of vertical skeletal development of facial soft tissue morphology on individuals in the developmental stage of our study is greater in lengths of face heights, especially in the length of lower face. The 3DMD facial imaging system that can be used to analyze facial soft tissue morphology is a practical and reliable system.