An assessment of skeletal craniofacial asymmetry in Gujarati population – An autocad study

Objectives: To assess and to compare the skeletal craniofacial asymmetry by manual and digital methods in patients having symmetrical and clinically pleasing profile. Materials and Method: Posteroanterior cephalograms of 60 Gujarati subjects with pleasing profile and no evident facial asymmetry were taken. Along with the manual method, AUTOCAD software version(2014) was used to measure the surface area of various craniofacial triangles on these radiographs. Results: Cranial base region shows asymmetry with left side being larger than right when done by both autocad and manual methods. Lower maxillary region and mandibular region shows asymmetry with left side larger than right in males when done by manual method. Conclusions: One of the possible reasons for the greater amount of asymmetry in the cranial base region and mandibular region could be due to difficulty in locating the condylar point. Clinically pleasing and symmetrical faces exhibit some amount of skeletal asymmetry which may not be evident because of the soft tissue envelope, which tries to minimize the underlying asymmetry. Keywords: Asymmetry; Craniofacial traingles; Autocad software; Surface area