Digital comparison of cephalometric standards between 9 to 11 year old Iranians and American Caucasions, after 2 years follow up with Dentofacial Planner software

Nowadays cephalometric software have become very popular, but due to racial and ethnical difference in facial soft and hard tissue features the norms should be adapted for each nation. The purpose of this study was to establish soft and hard tissue data base for 9 to 11 years Iranian children and to compare it with Legan and Ricketts dentofacial planner plus norms for American Caucasians. Methods & Materials: This was a longitudinal descriptive study on 60 cephalograms of normal 9-11 years Iranian children in city of Qazvin. They were selected as normal occlusion cases according to Moyer’s. The cephalograms were scanned and 13 landmarks for Legan soft tissue and 32 landmarks for Ricketts hard tissue analysis were digitized. Then by means of Dentofacial planner plus 11 measurements were calculated for each age group (20 in each age 9, 10, 11 years). The mean for each landmark was compared to American Caucasian norms in the databank by Paired t test. Nine years old Iranian girls had more facial convexity, nasolabial angle, upper & lower lip protrusion and height of midface but their lower face height was less. In boys, middle face height was the same as American’s and nasolabial angle differed less. In 11 year old girls the difference between lower face height and lip protrusion became less, boy's nasolabial angle was more than American’s. Significant differences were present in soft and hard tissue norms of Iranian’s in comparsion to American Caucasions. Iranian data base for cephalometric norms should be established.