Facial Soft Tissue Depth Measurement: Validation of the 75-Shormax

The shorth and 75-shormax were recently posited as an improved alternative to the arithmetic mean for describing facial soft tissue thicknesses in craniofacial identification. The shorth better estimates the data peak, while the 75-shormax provides improved provisions for a long right tail. When first proposed, the 75-shormax was subjectively gauged. Herein, shormax errors are calculated at every whole percentile to quantitatively determine zones of error minimization in two large samples: (a) CT data of French adults, n-range = 211-469 individuals; and (b) all C-Table data, n-range = 60-1065 individuals [including part but not all of sample (a)]. The smallest residuals were found at the 79th percentile (mean of raw residuals) and the 74th percentile (mean of absolute residuals). The 75-shormax is subsequently verified as good error minimizer since the absolute differences carry the greatest weight and the 74th percentile closely approximates the 75th percentile.