Linear measurements of facial morphology using automatic aproach

Introduction Clinical extraoral examination prior to orthodontic treatment includes face analysis (front and profile). Development of computer technology has increased efficacy and simplified this process through automating several steps of the analysis. The aim of this paper was to examine the possibility of automatic determining of linear measurements based on the facial image of a patient. Material and Methods Based on the set of 20 patients in NHP (Natural Head Position) position, three sets of measurements were conducted. Trained orthodontist performed positioning of predefined points on the image of the patient two times with one week apart, after which the points were automatically determined using customized computer software. Based on the position of the points, measurements for bizygomatic distance, upper and lower facial height and full facial height were computed. Three sets of measurements were compared and statistically analyzed. Results showed that computer software produced measurements comparable to measurements obtained by a trained orthodontist. Statistical analysis included calculating mean values and standard deviations, as well as paired two-tailed T-test. Differences between measurements ranged from 0.03% to 0.6% suggesting that automatic method can be successfully used. Conclusions The results of this research suggest that it is possible to ease, accelerate and automate work of the orthodontist on the image analysis using suitable software without significant differences in measured values.