Patients' narratives of orthognathic treatment for facial asymmetry: a qualitative study

Capturing the smile: Exploring embodied and social acts of smiling

Smiling is an embodied and complex social act. Smiling is presented as facilitating individual health and wellbeing, but the value placed on smiling raises questions about structural conditions acting on the body. While smiling has been considered sociologically, psychologically and historically, we argue that further exploration of the embodied smile offers fruitful avenues for future research. This article attempts to advance understanding of the smile and its importance by: (I) Bringing together literature on smiling as a social act and smiling as embodied. (II) Systematically identifying key themes, which recognise sociological insights and the relevance of oral health. (III) Pointing to useful directions for future sociological research into smiling. In this article, we review literature on body techniques; impression management and social interaction; gender, race and smiling; and emotional, aesthetic and affective labour. We move on to embodiment, considering the mouth as a body project and in relation to the ageing body, before reflecting on the significance of oral health and dentistry. We highlight future directions for sociological research on smiling, building on eight interrelated and cross-cutting themes: norms and expectations, aesthetic ideals, self and identity, health and wellbeing, body work, commodification and labour, inclusion and exclusion and resistance.

Inferior Alveolar Nerve Repositioning With the Computer-Aided Design in Hemimandibular Hyperplasia

A 34-year-old man presented with facial asymmetry and was diagnosed with left-sided hemimandibular hyperplasia. Orthognathic surgery and mandibular angle osteotomy combined with inferior alveolar nerve repositioning were performed with computer-aided design. The facial asymmetry was successfully corrected with acceptable cosmetic results. Inferior alveolar nerve repositioning provided sufficient space for the osteotomy of the affected side with the abnormal mandibular canal. Inferior alveolar nerve repositioning with computer-aided design can be used as an effective and reliable technique for hemimandibular hyperplasia.

Skeletal facial asymmetry: reliability of manual and artificial intelligence-driven analysis

OBJECTIVES

To compare artificial intelligence (AI)-driven web-based platform and manual measurements for analysing facial asymmetry in craniofacial CT examinations.

METHODS

The study included 95 craniofacial CT scans from patients aged 18-30 years. The degree of asymmetry was measured based on AI platform-predefined anatomical landmarks: sella (S), condylion (Co), anterior nasal spine (ANS), and menton (Me). The concordance between the results of automatic asymmetry reports and manual linear 3D measurements was calculated. The asymmetry rate (AR) indicator was determined for both automatic and manual measurements, and the concordance between them was calculated. The repeatability of manual measurements in 20 randomly selected subjects was assessed. The concordance of measurements of quantitative variables was assessed with interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) according to the Shrout and Fleiss classification.

RESULTS

Erroneous AI tracings were found in 16.8% of cases, reducing the analysed cases to 79. The agreement between automatic and manual asymmetry measurements was very low (ICC < 0.3). A lack of agreement between AI and manual AR analysis (ICC type 3 = 0) was found. The repeatability of manual measurements and AR calculations showed excellent correlation (ICC type 2 > 0.947).

CONCLUSIONS

The results indicate that the rate of tracing errors and lack of agreement with manual AR analysis make it impossible to use the tested AI platform to assess the degree of facial asymmetry.