Anatomical characteristics, relations, and clinical considerations of the facial index and cephalic index in young chileans aged between 18 and 21 years

Abstract

Humans throughout history have shown similarities between both their cephalic and facial complexion, among certain ethnic groups, due to genetic and demographic factors. Several studies have demonstrated the different constitutions of specific groups of people in order to generate data of a certain population or group. The present research aims to preliminarily study the existence of possible relations between Cephalic Index and Facial Index among categories of individuals in an odontology student population from a private university in Santiago, Chile. Empirical, descriptive, and cross-sectional study. In this study, 129 students with age range 18-21 were taken as subjects in a non-probabilistic way. Regarding Cephalic Index (CI), the Retzius classification was used, and the Facial Index (FI) was measured considering the maximum height of the face, from nasion to gnathion (Na-Gn), and the maximum width, from right zygion to left zygion (Zr-Zl). In this study, 129 people were taken as sample, 82 females and 47 males. Among women, the most predominant cephalic biotype was brachycephalic (59.8 %), followed by mesocephalic (37.8 %), and dolichocephalic (2.4 %). On the other hand, men’s most common biotype was mesocephalic (57.5 %), followed by brachycephalic (36.2 %), and dolichocephalic (6.4 %). Regarding facial biotype, both in female and male subjects the following pattern was shown: euryprosopic (F: 59.7 %, M: 59.6 %), mesoprosopic (F: 26.8 %, M: 29.8 %), and leptoprosopic (F: 13.4 %, M: 10.6 %). Facial parameters of the subjects (odontology students from a Chilean university) tend to be mostly euryprosopic, followed by mesoprosopic and leptoprosopic. Additionally, mesocephalic biotypes tend to be similar to other studies conducted in Chile.