Anterior Face Height Values in a Nigerian Population

BACKGROUND Withan increasing demand in the number of patients seeking orthodontictreatment at the Orthodontic unit of University of Benin teaching hospital it becomes imperative to provide normative values for anterior face heights. These values will then form a basis for clinical diagnosis, treatment planning and evaluation of facial proportions following orthodontic treatments. AIM The aim of this study was to measure anterior face height proportions of school children in Benin City. SUBJECTS AND METHODS One hundred Lateral cephalometric radiographs of 12-15 years old school children, in Benin City were taken to establish anterior face height values. Manual tracings of the cephalograms were carried out and the linear measurements were recorded, summarized, and statistically analyzed using the Microsoft Excel Programme 2000. The comparative test was conducted using the Student's t-test to demonstrate any statistically significant difference between the values for the males and females, at 95% confidence level P < 0.05, was regarded as significant. RESULT Out of the 100 subjects who participated in the study, there were 40 males 40% (40/100) and 60 females 60% (60/100), with a mean age of 12.2 years. Following a combined data analysis for both males and females, the mean biological values obtained for the parameters investigated are; Anterior Lower Face Height (ALFH) 60.9 (5) mm, Anterior Upper Face Height 47.7 (4) mm, Anterior Total Face Height (ATFH) 108.5 (5) mm, ratio of ALFH to ATFH ALFH: ATFH 56 (4)%. CONCLUSION This study provides anterior face height measurements, which will be of great significance in evaluating facial proportions andesthetics in orthodontics, orthognathic surgery, and prosthetic dentistry.