Craniofacial Anthropometric Analysis in a Group of Iranian Adults

The anthropometric measurement of any ethnic group is imperative for clinicians to successfully treat patients with dentofacial deformities. The purpose of this study was analysis of the craniofacial anthropometric measurements in Iranian young adults (18-30 years) in Tehran. In this descriptive study, 100Iranian young adults (50 males, 50 females) with normal face and occlusion in all three dimensions based on reference books were selected. They had no history of orthodontic treatment, trauma or plastic surgery in head and face. Nineteen linear and four angular measurements and nine indices were taken over 5 craniofacial regions. The methodology was adapted from Farkas et al. Shapiro-wilk test showed normal distribution of measurements. Statistical analysis of the data and comparing the study groupwith the North American Caucasians’ norms was done using one sample t-test and paired t-test respectively. Based onthe indices,brachycephalic head (81.7±3.5 males, 81.4±2.9 females), along with a leptorrhin nose,as well as aleptoprosopic face (90.3±4.4 males, 91.4±5 females)were seen in the study group.In comparison with North American Caucasians, besides the differences in angular and linear measurement, there was a significant differencesin head and eye indices in both genders and facial and nasal indices in females of thetwo races(p<0.01). Variability between these two races suggests that norms of other races cannot be applicable in Iranian population for treating dentofacial deformities. Therefore,further studies in different racial groups of Iranian population is recommended.