Do long-faced subjects really have a long anterior face? A longitudinal study

INTRODUCTION

The aims of this study were to investigate and compare the anterior facial heights of children with long, normal, and short faces during growth and to discover whether long-faced subjects have long dimensions in both the upper and lower anterior facial heights compared with the others.

METHODS

Longitudinal lateral cephalometric data of 167 children (83 girls, 84 boys) from 6 to 14 years of age were used. Total anterior face height, upper anterior face height, lower anterior face height, and the closest distance from the Frankfort horizontal plane to nasion were measured. The samples were classified as long-faced, normal-faced, and short-faced according to the ratio of lower to total face heights at 14 years old. All data were analyzed statistically and compared between the groups according to age.

RESULTS

The mean lower anterior face height in the long-faced group was larger than in the normal-faced and short-faced groups for all ages in both sexes. In contrast, subjects in the normal-faced group had a longer mean upper anterior face height than did subjects in the long-faced and short-faced groups. In addition, the mean upper anterior face height of the short-faced group was larger than the long-faced group for girls at all ages and for boys at 12 to 14 years.

CONCLUSIONS

The long-faced children did not have longer upper facial heights compared with normal-faced and short-faced children, and their long faces were mainly determined by the length of the lower face.