Semi-longitudinal study of growth and development of cranio-facial soft tissue of children aged from 3 to 11

Abstract

Today's orthodontic treatment goals lie in functional esthetics, and the importance of the latter is increasing gradually in trend. Considering such, study on growth and development of soft as well as hard tissues becomes inevitable. Early studies emphasize mainly plays a critical role in determining data. However, more recent studies report that maxillofacial soft tissue, which plays a critical role in determining facial eathetics, is influenced by underlying hard tissue, and yet close relationship between them was not noticed. Cephalometric x-rays were taken of 137 Korean boys and 106 girls with no systemic disease, fair developmental status and normal occlusion for two consecutive years; afterwards, soft tissue analysiss, which was divided into four parts, facial form, lip position & posture, nose, and thickness, was done to correlate tham with general growth.