Soft- and hard-tissue facial anthropometry in three dimensions: what's new.

In the last few years, technology has provided new instruments for the three-dimensional analysis of human facial morphology. Currently, quantitative assessments of dimensions, spatial positions and relative proportions of distinctive facial features can be obtained for both soft- and hard- (skeletal and dental) tissues. New mathematical tools allow to fuse digital data obtained from various image analyzers, thus providing quantitative information for anatomical and nthropometric descriptions, medical evaluations (clinical genetics, orthodontics, maxillo-facial and plastic surgery), and forensic medicine.