title: Soft tissue cephalometrics: an overdue evaluation.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to compare the accuracy of cephalometric soft tissue linear measurements obtained from conventionally traced cephalograms with those taken directly on patients. This study was conducted on 11 orthodontic patients. Small pieces of orthodontic wire were fixed on five soft tissue landmarks in the midline of the face of each patient. Five linear measurements were taken directly on each patient's face using an electronic Boley gauge reading to the nearest 0.05 mm. Also, a lateral cephalogram was taken of each patient with the aforementioned wires still in place. Using the same gauge, the same linear measurements were taken from the tracings of all cephalograms. The two sets of readings were statistically analyzed using the concordance correlation coefficient and Pearson correlation coefficient. The study concluded that soft tissue measurements on lateral cephalometric radiographs do not give reliable values. A single magnification factor cannot be applied for lateral cephalometric soft tissue measurements in all patients, nor within the same patient.
authors.affiliation: Orthodontic Department, Faculty of Oral and Dental Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Essam Nassef
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Seliem
authors.forename: Khaled Hazem
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Attia
authors.forename: Saba
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Al-Hadithiy
authors.forename: Yehya Ahmed
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Mostafa
mesh_terms: D002508:Cephalometry / Q000379:methods*; D061827:Dimensional Measurement Accuracy; D005145:Face / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D015588:Observer Variation; D011858:Radiographic Magnification / Q000379:methods