Three-dimensional facial development of children with unilateral cleft lip and palate during the first year of life in comparison with normative average faces.

Background: Stereophotogrammetry can be used to study facial morphology in both healthy individuals as well as subjects with orofacial clefts because it shows good reliability, ability to capture images rapidly, archival capabilities, and high resolution, and does not require ionizing radiation. This study aimed to compare the three-dimensional (3D) facial morphology of infants born with unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) with an age-matched normative 3D average face before and after primary closure of the lip and soft palate.

Methods: Thirty infants with a non-syndromic complete unilateral cleft lip, alveolus, and palate participated in the study.

Uniform 3D meshes to establish normative facial averages of healthy infants during the first year of life.

Three-dimensional (3D) surface imaging systems are replacing direct anthropometry as the preferred method for capturing facial soft-tissues. Aims of this study were: (1) to develop normative average 3D faces of healthy infants aged 3, 6, 9, and 12 months and (2) to describe normative average 3D facial growth data in infants aged 3 to 12 months. Three-dimensional images of 50 healthy children were acquired at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of age using the 3dMDcranial system.

Regional facial asymmetries and attractiveness of the face.

Objective: Facial attractiveness is an important factor in our social interactions. It is still not entirely clear which factors influence the attractiveness of a face and facial asymmetry appears to play a certain role. The aim of the present study was to assess the association between facial attractiveness and regional facial asymmetries evaluated on three-dimensional (3D) images.

Rating dental arch relationships and palatal morphology with the EUROCRAN index on three different formats of dental casts in children with unilateral cleft lip and palate.

Background: The EUROCRAN index has been used in inter-center studies to assess dental arch relationship (DAR) and palatal morphology (PM) in children with unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP). For this type of inter-center research, a scoring method that could be performed over the internet would be the most effective. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the reliability of application of the EUROCRAN index on 3D digital models or photographs of plaster models instead of using plaster models.

Regional facial asymmetries in unilateral orofacial clefts.

Objectives: Assess facial asymmetry in subjects with unilateral cleft lip (UCL), unilateral cleft lip and alveolus (UCLA), and unilateral cleft lip, alveolus, and palate (UCLP), and to evaluate which area of the face is most asymmetrical.

Methods: Standardized three-dimensional facial images of 58 patients (9 UCL, 21 UCLA, and 28 UCLP; age range: 8.6-12.

Three-dimensional imaging methods for quantitative analysis of facial soft tissues and skeletal morphology in patients with orofacial clefts: a systematic review.

Background: Current guidelines for evaluating cleft palate treatments are mostly based on two-dimensional (2D) evaluation, but three-dimensional (3D) imaging methods to assess treatment outcome are steadily rising.

Objective: To identify 3D imaging methods for quantitative assessment of soft tissue and skeletal morphology in patients with cleft lip and palate.

Data Sources: Literature was searched using PubMed (1948-2012), EMBASE (1980-2012), Scopus (2004-2012), Web of Science (1945-2012), and the Cochrane Library.

Volumetric changes of the nose and nasal airway 2 years after tooth-borne and bone-borne surgically assisted rapid maxillary expansion.

This study aimed to assess the effects of bone-borne and tooth-borne surgically assisted rapid maxillary expansion on the volumes of the nose and nasal airway 2 yr after maxillary expansion. This prospective cohort study included 32 patients with transverse maxillary hypoplasia. Expansion was performed with a tooth-borne distractor (Hyrax) in 19 patients and with a bone-borne distractor [transpalatal distractor (TPD)] in the remaining 13.

Three-dimensional evaluation of soft tissue changes in the orofacial region after tooth-borne and bone-borne surgically assisted rapid maxillary expansion.

Objectives: This study seeks to three-dimensionally assess soft tissue changes in the orofacial region following tooth-borne and bone-borne surgically assisted rapid maxillary expansion (SARME).

Materials And Methods: This prospective cohort study included 40 skeletally mature patients with transverse maxillary hypoplasia. A tooth-borne distractor (Hyrax) was used for expansion in 25 patients.

Three-dimensional prospective evaluation of tooth-borne and bone-borne surgically assisted rapid maxillary expansion.

Aim: To three-dimensionally (3D) assess the long-term effects of tooth-borne and bone-borne surgically assisted rapid maxillary expansion (SARME).

Subjects And Methods: This prospective cohort study comprised 45 consecutive skeletally mature non-syndromic patients with transverse maxillary hypoplasia. In 28 patients, a tooth-borne distractor (Hyrax) was used for expansion, whereas in the remaining 17 a bone-borne distractor (transpalatal distractor, TPD) was used.

Accuracy and reproducibility of voxel based superimposition of cone beam computed tomography models on the anterior cranial base and the zygomatic arches.

Superimposition of serial Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) scans has become a valuable tool for three dimensional (3D) assessment of treatment effects and stability. Voxel based image registration is a newly developed semi-automated technique for superimposition and comparison of two CBCT scans. The accuracy and reproducibility of CBCT superimposition on the anterior cranial base or the zygomatic arches using voxel based image registration was tested in this study.

A systematic review of the effects of bone-borne surgical assisted rapid maxillary expansion.

Introduction: A systematic literature review was conducted to find out if bone-borne maxillary expansion with corticotomies is an effective and secure orthodontic/orthopaedic treatment modality, eliminating orthodontic and periodontal side effects of tooth-borne maxillary expansion with corticotomies.

Material And Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCT), controlled clinical trials (CCT) and case series with a sample size >or=5 were electronically searched in PubMED, MEDLINE, EMBASE Excerpta Medica, CINAHL, Biological Abstracts and CENTRAL till June 2008. Data were extracted by 2 observers.

Current practice of distraction osteogenesis for craniofacial anomalies in Europe: a web based survey.

Aim of the study was to get more insight into the opinion of European surgeons and orthodontists on the use of distraction osteogenesis (DO) for patients with different diagnoses and treatment protocols. A web based survey was set up, showing records of four patients with different conditions: hemifacial microsomia (case 1), bilateral mandibular deficiency (case 2), cleft lip and palate (case 3) and Crouzon syndrome (case 4). Respondents from 181 Eurocleft centres were asked to fill out a questionnaire for each patient.