title: Soft tissue facial morphology in obese adolescents: a three-dimensional noninvasive assessment.
abstract: The number of obese adolescents is increasing in the Western society. For a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying this pathology, the quantitative characteristics of the facial soft tissues should also be investigated. The three-dimensional coordinates of 12 soft tissue facial landmarks were obtained by computerized digitizers in 11 male and 14 female adolescents aged 13-17 years, all with a body mass index larger than 30 kg/m2 (mean 31.67 kg/m2, SD 1.58). From the landmarks, several facial dimensions were calculated. Data were compared with those collected in normal individuals of the same age, ethnicity, and sex by computing z scores. Significant (paired Student's t-test, P < .05) larger dimensions were found for skull base width (girls), mandibular width (both sexes), lower face depth (girls), and mandibular corpus length (girls). In the pooled sample (boys plus girls), the faces of obese adolescents were significantly wider transversally (skull base width, mandibular width), deeper sagittally (mid and lower face depth, mandibular corpus length), and shorter vertically (upper facial height) than those of their normal school companions. "Borderline" obese adolescents possessed some facial characteristics typical of patients with more substantial obesity. The effect of an increased body weight-per-height was therefore present also in subjects not already referred to a medical control.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio di Anatomia Funzionale dell'Apparato Stomatognatico, Functional Anatomy Research Center, Dipartimento di Anatomia Umana, Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy. farc@unimi.it
authors.forename: Virgilio F
authors.initials: VF
authors.lastname: Ferrario
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dellavia
authors.forename: Gianluca M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Tartaglia
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Turci
authors.forename: Chiarella
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sforza
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002508:Cephalometry / Q000379:methods; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008334:Mandible / Q000473:pathology; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D009765:Obesity / Q000473:pathology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D019291:Skull Base / Q000473:pathology; D014716:Vertical Dimension