Analysis of Holdaway soft-tissue measurements in children between 9 and 12 years of age

In this study, 43 lateral cephalometric radiographs from 20 boys and 23 girls subjects were used to determine the Holdaway soft tissue growth changes. Subjects with Class I occlusions, balanced skeletal profiles, normal growth and development, and no orthodontic treatment history were included in the investigation. The cephalometric measurements were carried out on the first and second radiographs of each subject, with an average interval of 5 years. The growth changes in both sexes were analysed separately. The changes resulting from growth and development were determined by a paired t-test. The results showed that all measurements were significant at various levels except for upper lip sulcus depth, subnasal-H line distance, and lower lip H distance in girls, and upper lip sulcus depth, subnasal-H line distance, H angle and lower lip H line distance in boys. The measurement differences were observed with a Student's t-test. No significant difference was found for any measurement except upper lip base thickness (P < 0.001) and upper lip thickness (P < 0.01). The following measurements during the observation period were statistically different: soft-tissue facial angle (P < 0.01 in girls, P < 0.05 boys), nose prominence (P < 0.001 in girls and boys), skeletal profile convexity (P < 0.001 in girls, P < 0.01 in boys), basic upper lip thickness (P < 0.001 in girls and boys), upper lip thickness (P < 0.05 in girls, P < 0.001 in boys), H angle (P < 0.001 in girls), lower lip sulcus depth (P < 0.001 in girls and boys), and soft-tissue chin thickness (P < 0.001 in girls, P < 0.001 in boys).