Proposal for facial type determination based on anthropometry

To describe orofacial indexes and proportions in adults, according to facial type and gender, and to verify the possibility to establish a way of classifying face based on anthropometry.

Participants were 105 leukoderm adults, 34 male (32.4%) and 71 female (67.6%), with ages between 20 and 40 years old, patients in a private orthodontic clinic in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The findings from the cephalometric analysis contained in their orthodontic records were used for determination of facial type. Subjects were divided according to gender and facial type, and were submitted to anthropometric facial measures obtained directly through a caliper rule. These measures were compared to six variables: facial index, lower face index, upper face index, chin-face height proportion, chin height proportion, and mandibular height proportion.

The average values obtained by the subjects divided into genders and facial types that presented significant differences were: facial index, lower face index, upper face index, and mandibular height proportion for males, and mandibular height proportion, for females. To predict facial types, the following parameters were considered significant: facial index, upper face index and mandibular height proportion for the dolichofacial type, for males; and mandibular height proportion for the dolichofacial and lower face index for the brachyfacial type, for females.

Some indexes and orofacial proportions present variations according to facial types and genders. In general, the anthropometric variables in this study are not good predictors to determine facial types.