A semi-automatic three-dimensional technique using a regionalized facial template enables facial growth assessment in healthy children from 1.5 to 5.0 years of age

OBJECTIVES: To develop a semi-automatic technique to evaluate normative facial growth in healthy children between the age of 1.5 and 5.0 years using three-dimensional stereophotogrammetric images. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three-dimensional facial images of healthy children at 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0 years of age were collected and positioned based on a reference frame. A general face template was used to extract the face and its separate regions from the full stereophotogrammetric image. Furthermore, this template was used to create a uniform distributed mesh, which could be directly compared to other meshes. Average faces were created for each age group and mean growth was determined between consecutive groups for the full face and its separate regions. Finally, the results were tested for intra- and inter-operator performance. RESULTS: The highest growth velocity was present in the first period between 1.5 and 2.0 years of age with an average of 1.50 mm (±0.54 mm) per six months. After 2.0 years, facial growth velocity declined to only a third at the age of 5.0 years. Intra- and inter-operator variability was small and not significant. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that this technique can be used for objective clinical evaluation of facial growth. Example normative facial averages and the corresponding facial growth between the age 1.5 and 5.0 years are shown. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: This technique can be used to collect and process facial data for objective clinical evaluation of facial growth in the individual patient. Furthermore, these data can be used as normative data in future comparative studies.