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Updated: Oct 18, 2025

Quantification of Orofacial Phenotypes in Xenopus
Published on: November 6, 2014
Association of Upper Lip Morphology Characteristics with Sagittal and Vertical Skeletal Patterns: A Cross Sectional
Xinyu Yan1, Xiaoqi Zhang1, Yiyin Chen1
1National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, Department of Orthodontics, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, No.14, Section 3, Ren Min South Road, Chengdu 610041, China.
Background:
Upper lip morphology is essential in diagnosis and treatment of orthodontics and orthognathic surgery. This study is aimed to evaluate the association between upper lip characteristics (ULCs) and skeletal patterns (SPs).
Methods:
2079 patients were involved and grouped by sagittal and vertical. Class I, II, and III were identified by ANB angle, while normodivergent, hyperdivergent, and hypodivergent were identified by Facial Height Index and Sum of Angles. ULCs were evaluated by superior sulcus depth, nasolabial angle, upper lip length, basic upper lip thickness, and upper lip thickness. Confounders including demography, malocclusion, upper incisors, and upper lips were adjusted by multivariate linear regression to identify the association between ULCs and SPs. Group differences were evaluated with analysis of variance and Chi-square test.
Results:
The mean value of ULCs and prevalence of SPs were explored in the Western China population. ULCs were significantly different in various sagittal, vertical, and combined SPs. Superior sulcus depth was negatively related to Class II, and positively related to Class III and the hypodivergent pattern after adjusted by confounders.
Conclusions:
ULCs significantly varied among different SPs, while only superior sulcus depth was independently associated with SPs, indicating superior sulcus depth is the only ULC that might be significantly corrected by intervention of skeletal growth.
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