Angular Photogrammetric Analysis of the Soft Tissue Facial Profile of Iranian Young Adults

Background: the evaluation of the soft tissue facial profile is essential to achieve facial harmony in orthodontic diagnosis and treatment planning.objectives: this study aimed to develop soft tissue angular photogrammetric norms for a sample of iranian population.patients and methods: standardized profile photographic records were taken from 34 men and 37 women. twelve measurements were analyzed on each photograph by autocad software. for statistical evaluation a student’s t-test was used and the reliability of the method was assessed by using intra-class correlation coefficient (icc) within a four week interval.results: three of the angles showed sexual differences: nasofrontal (g-n-prn, p = 0.009), nasal (cm-sn/n-prn, p = 0.012) and vertical nasal (n-prn/tv, p = 0.029). other nine angles showed statistically insignificant gender differences (p > 0.05). two of the angles that suggested gender differences were wider in females: nasofrontal and nasal angle while the third angle was wider in males. other angles such as nasolabial (cm-sn-ls), mentolabial (li-sm-pg), nasal dorsum (n-mn-prn) and angle of the total convexity (g-prn-pg) were also found wider in females. the inferior third was larger than the middle third. mentolabial angle (li-sm-pg), which had the highest standard deviation, showed the greatest variability.conclusions: the results showed gender dimorphism in three of the measurements: the nasofrontal, the nasal and the vertical nasal angles. another significant finding was the large variability for the mentolabial angle. the result of this measurement should be assessed with caution.