TDStats—A fast standardized capability for facial soft tissue thickness analysis in R

Abstract

The popular and repeated calculation of facial soft tissue thickness in different samples by different practitioners makes the development of a free, standard, and open-source tool that calculates all necessary statistics in an automated fashion useful. This tool should enable data analysis for single or multiple studies in both independent study-specific format and as a pooled aggregate. The tool should be fast, should facilitate exploratory data analysis, and should provide robust central tendency statistics (shorth and shormaxes). The tool should facilitate effortless analysis, so that once the raw data are entered, little additional input is required of the analyst to maximize user-friendliness. This paper describes in detail such a capability (TDStats v2017.1) specifically formulated for soft tissue thickness analyses and demonstrates its utility by analysing 14,201 publically available data points at 24 landmarks from 1086 subjects in under 45s. Outputs include 120 plots, 15 tables, and 5 summary pdfs. A step-by-step user guide to TDStats is provided as well as additional comments and clarity on the utility of robust central tendency statistics.