Effects of Positioning Errors Onto the Ratio and Angle Measurements in Photographs of Patients With Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate.

Abstract

Nasolabial esthetics is 1 of the most important issues in the evaluation of treatment outcomes in patients with unilateral cleft lip and palate (CLP). Frontal and basal view photographs are commonly used to evaluate nasolabial esthetics in patients with unilateral CLP. High-quality photography plays an important role in evaluating the treatment outcomes and poor quality photographs can result in errors, whereas evaluating the treatment results. Facial proportions and angles are important in the esthetic perception of the face. Hence, this study aimed to determine the effects of positioning errors on the ratio and angle measurements in photographs of patients with unilateral CLP. In the clinical and computer environment, a mechanism was set up to take photos at standard and at different angles. A real-size unilateral CLP silicone doll was constructed for the photographs to be taken in the clinical setting. A test-retest was performed to determine the reliability of the measured values. The correlation coefficients for the first measurement and remeasurement values were statistically significant; positive and strong correlations were obtained. Based on the data obtained from our study, the angle and ratio measurements obtained from the two-dimensional photographs provided reliable results.