Nasal and Labio-Oral Angles in Young Adult Indigenous Ghanaians
Paul M. Matondo, Kevin Kofi Adutwum-Ofosu, Richard Michael Blay, John Ahenkorah, Bismark Afedo Hottor, Nii Koney-Kwaku Koney, Benjamin Arko-Boham, Peter Ofori Appiah, Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe, Frederick Kwaku AddaiBackground/objective:
The paucity of normative angular nasal and labio-oral anthropometric data on indigenous sub-Saharan Africans hinders the esthetic effectiveness of reconstructive/plastic surgery on their faces. This data void also negatively affects their facial biometrics, information retrieval, forensics, dentistry, and beauty analysis. This study contributes to filling this gap by generating normative values for the nasal and labio-oral angles in young adult autochthonic Africans living in Ghana.
Methods:
One hundred and five volunteers (54 males and 51 females) were conveniently sampled from students at our institution. Seven nasal and labio-oral angles, namely; the Nasofrontal, Nasal tip, Nasolabial, Labiomental, Alar slope, Mandibular Frankfurt plane, and Mentocervical were measured by direct anthropometric (angle meter) and indirect anthropometric (Photogrammetry) methods. Data were assessed for sexual dimorphism using Student’s
Results:
Comparison between direct and indirect methods showed no significant differences for most angles, except for the Mandibular-Frankfurt plane angle (MFA;
Conclusion:
This study provides baseline normative data on nasal and labio-oral angles in young Indigenous Ghanaians. Apart from the Nasofrontal angle, which exhibited significant sexual dimorphism (females > males), 6 other angles did not significantly differ between sexes. Our results indicate that the indirect photogrammetric method correlates strongly with direct measurements for selected angles, and it may serve as a useful alternative when standardized photographs are available. However, caution is advised for MFA and MCA where methodological differences were observed.