Longitudinal changes in three normal facial types.

The purpose of this study was to describe and compare the dentofacial relationships of three normal facial types (long, average, and short). Comparisons of the absolute and incremental changes between 5 years and 25.5 years of age were made both longitudinally and cross-sectionally. The subjects consisted of 20 males and 15 females for whom complete sets of data were available for the period of this study. All subjects had clinically acceptable occlusion and had not undergone previous orthodontic treatment. Descriptive statistics summarized the changes in 48 parameters, including that of height for males and females at 5, 10, 15, and 25.5 years of age. Longitudinal comparisons of the growth curves evaluated the curve profiles and curve magnitudes for the three facial types for both males and females. The analysis of variance was also used to compare the absolute and incremental changes at ages 5, 10, 15, and 25.5 years. The investigation resulted in the following findings. (1) Most persons (77%) have been categorized as having the same facial type at 5 and at 25.5 years of age. There is a strong tendency to maintain the original facial type with age. (2) Comparisons of the growth curves of the different parameters--with the exception of the incremental curves for MP:SN and Pog:NB in males--consistently demonstrated parallelism of the curves, regardless of the facial type. On the other hand, comparisons of curve magnitude indicated significant differences among the three facial types. (3) The persons within each facial type expressed a relatively large variation in the size and relationships of the various dentofacial structures. (4) Significant differences in the dentofacial parameters were present between males and females with the same facial type. The differences among facial types were not identical in males and females. (5) Longitudinal analysis of the data lends more consistent and, therefore, more meaningful results than cross-sectional comparisons when facial growth trends need to be evaluated. This is because growth changes are often subtle and of magnitudes not readily observed when the data are evaluated cross-sectionally. Standards that are age-, sex- and facial type-specific are presented.