<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><sec><h3>Objective</h3><p>To investigate whether changes in head posture have significant effects on facial soft tissues during white-light scanning.</p></sec><sec><h3>Materials and methods</h3><p>Thirty-four adult patients participated in the study in which 22 soft tissue landmarks were marked on the face of each subject using an oil-based pen. The subjects wore digital inclinometers on top of their heads, and sat relaxed with their heads orientated in natural head position (NHP), while a facial scan was captured. The subjects underwent a second facial scan in an upward 5°(U5), upward 10°(U10), downward 5°(D5), or a downward 10°(D10) direction with respect to the NHP. The NHP image was superimposed on the images taken at the different head postures and a single co-ordinate system was obtained. The axial reference plane (x-axis), the sagittal reference plane (y-axis) and the coronal plane (z-axis) were set with N’ as the zero point (0, 0, 0). The changes in position of each landmark caused by the change of head posture were measured.</p></sec><sec><h3>Results</h3><p>When the subject’s head was in the U5 and D5 posture, changes in landmark identification were not statistically significantly different. When the subject’s head was in the U10 posture, soft tissue Stmi and Li moved downward significantly. Soft tissue pogonion moved forward significantly in the D10 posture.</p></sec><sec><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Soft tissue changes within 5° of the natural head posture were clinically negligible. If efforts to reproduce natural head position are carried out, reliable facial scanning images can be obtained without the support of any special head positioning tools.</p></sec></abstract>

ObjectiveTo investigate whether changes in head posture have significant effects on facial soft tissues during white-light scanning.Materials and methodsThirty-four adult patients participated in the study in which 22 soft tissue landmarks were marked on the face of each subject using an oil-based pen. The subjects wore digital inclinometers on top of their heads, and sat relaxed with their heads orientated in natural head position (NHP), while a facial scan was captured. The subjects underwent a second facial scan in an upward 5°(U5), upward 10°(U10), downward 5°(D5), or a downward 10°(D10) direction with respect to the NHP. The NHP image was superimposed on the images taken at the different head postures and a single co-ordinate system was obtained. The axial reference plane (x-axis), the sagittal reference plane (y-axis) and the coronal plane (z-axis) were set with N’ as the zero point (0, 0, 0). The changes in position of each landmark caused by the change of head posture were measured.ResultsWhen the subject’s head was in the U5 and D5 posture, changes in landmark identification were not statistically significantly different. When the subject’s head was in the U10 posture, soft tissue Stmi and Li moved downward significantly. Soft tissue pogonion moved forward significantly in the D10 posture.ConclusionsSoft tissue changes within 5° of the natural head posture were clinically negligible. If efforts to reproduce natural head position are carried out, reliable facial scanning images can be obtained without the support of any special head positioning tools.

The effect of head posture on facial soft tissue changes captured by white-light facial scanning

Australasian Orthodontic Journal

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ObjectiveTo investigate whether changes in head posture have significant effects on facial soft tissues during white-light scanning.Materials and...

The effect of head posture on facial soft tissue changes captured by white-light facial scanning

Published Online: Jul 20, 2021

Page range: 134 - 142

Received: Aug 01, 2018

Accepted: Jun 01, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21307/aoj-2020-042

© 2019 Jae-Beom Lim et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.