Facial Morphology Research Articles

Quantitative analysis of facial shape in children to support respirator design

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the need for respiratory protection against airborne pathogens. Respirator options for children are limited, and existing designs do not consider differences in facial shape or size. We created a dataset of children's facial images from three cohorts, then used geometric morphometric analyses of dense and sparse facial landmark representations to quantify age, sex and ancestry-related variation in shape. We found facial shape and size in children vary significantly with age from ages 2 to 18, particularly in dimensions relevant to respirator design. Sex differences are small throughout most of the age range of our sample. Ancestry is associated with significant facial shape variation in dimensions that may affect respirator fit. We offer guidance on how to our results can be used for the appropriate design of devices such as respirators for pediatric populations. We also highlight the need to consider ancestry-related variation in facial morphology to promote equitable, inclusive products.

Does Hand-Predominance Have a Predominant Influence on Craniofacial Asymmetric and Anthropometric Analysis in Preadolescences?

Background: Although the human body generally exhibits bilateral symmetry, achieving perfect symmetry is exceedingly uncommon. During preadolescent development, a face that approximates symmetry is considered both aesthetically and functionally ideal. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between craniofacial traits and hand predominance, using three-dimensional (3D) stereophotogrammetry to discern whether facial soft-tissue characteristics are correlated with hand preference. Materials and Methods: The study involved children aged 9 and 10 years who were free from any diagnosed craniofacial anomalies. Three-dimensional stereophotogrammetry was conducted to analyze their facial morphology, and 37 distinct anatomical landmarks were manually identified using a MATLAB-developed program. Results: A total of 188 Taiwanese children participated in the study. All participants were healthy, with a mean age of 9.79 years. Among them, 93.1% (175) were right-hand predominant, and 6.9% (13) were left-hand predominant. There were no significant differences in linear parameters or facial asymmetry between right-hand-predominant and left-hand-predominant participants (p > 0.05). However, a consistent trend toward right laterality, especially in the right lateral frontal region of the cranium, was observed, as illustrated by heat maps of the average three-dimensional model. Conclusions: The study found no association between facial morphology and hand predominance. A normal asymmetry with a rightward tendency was noted in children aged 9 to 10 years, which was particularly notable in the lateral frontal region of the head.

Soft Tissue Facial Morphology in Growing Patients with Different Occlusal Classes.

The study of facial profiles in the dental field is very important for the diagnosis and the dental and orthodontic treatment plan. The aim of this study is to analyze the three-dimensional morphology of the faces of 269 growing patients with Class I and II occlusions, focusing on children aged between 6 and 9 years old. The analysis was conducted using a non-invasive computerized system, which allowed for the automatic collection of facial landmarks and the subsequent reconstruction of three-dimensional coordinates. The sample comprised 269 children within the specified age range. Each child's facial features were captured using the non-invasive computerized system, which utilized two infrared CCD cameras, real-time hardware for label recognition, and software for three-dimensional landmark reconstruction. Sixteen cutaneous facial landmarks were automatically collected for each participant. From these landmarks, 10 angular and 15 linear measurements, as well as five direct distance rates, were derived. The mean values for each age class were calculated separately for children with bilateral Angle Class I occlusion and compared with those for children with bilateral Class II occlusion. In all children, the left and right occlusal classes were measured as suggested by Katz. The analysis revealed notable differences, primarily in the three-dimensional angular measurements between children with Class I and II occlusions. Specifically, Class II children exhibited more convex faces in the sagittal plane and a less prominent lower jaw compared to Class I children. However, no significant differences were observed in linear measurements, except for the lower facial height rate, which varied inconsistently across age groups between the two occlusion types. the findings of this research highlight distinct three-dimensional facial morphological differences between children with Class I and II occlusions. While Class II children tended to have more convex facial profiles and less prominent lower jaws, linear measurements showed minimal variation between the two occlusion types. These results underscore the importance of three-dimensional analysis in understanding facial morphology in growing patients with different occlusal patterns.

Evolutionary divergence of facial muscle physiology between domestic dogs and wolves.

Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) are descended from gray wolf (Canis lupus) populations that inhabited Western Europe and Siberia. The specific timing of dog domestication is debated, but archeological and genetic evidence suggest that it was a multi-phase process that began at least 15,000 years ago. There are many morphological differences between dogs and wolves, including marked divergence in facial muscle morphology, but we know little about the comparative physiology of these muscles. A better understanding of comparative facial muscle physiology between domestic dogs and gray wolves would improve our conceptual framework for the processual mechanisms in dog domestication. To address these issues, we assessed the myosin profiles (type I and type II) from the zygomaticus and orbicularis oris muscles of 6 domestic dogs and 4 gray wolves. Due to small sample sizes, statistical analyses were not done. Results reveal that sampled domestic dogs have almost 100% fast-twitch (type II) muscle fibers while gray wolves have less than 50%, meaning that dog faces can contract fast while wolf faces are able to sustain facial muscle contraction. Sample sizes are limited but the present study indicates that dog domestication is associated with not only a change in facial muscle morphology but a concomitant change in how these muscles function physiologically. Selective pressures in the development of communication between dogs and humans using facial expression may have influenced this evolutionary divergence, but the paedomorphic retention of barking in adult dogs may have also played a role.

Masticatory function and three-dimensional facial morphology of soft tissues: One year after orthognathic surgery

ObjectiveDentofacial deformities (DFD) require orthodontic treatment, orthognathic surgery, and speech therapy for aesthetic and functional problems. This longitudinal study analyzed changes in masticatory function and three-dimensional (3D) facial soft tissue in patients with Class II and Class III DFD after orthognathic surgery. In addition, the study investigated the relationship between facial measurements, maximum bite force (MBF), and orofacial myofunctional status (OMS). DesignThe sample consisted of 46 participants, including 10 patients with Class II DFD, and 11 patients with Class III DFD. These groups were assessed before (T0) and 6 months (T1) after surgery. Twelve patients who completed the treatment protocol were evaluated 12 months post-surgery (T2). The patient groups were compared with each other and with a control group (CG) of 25 healthy subjects. The participants underwent MBF and clinical evaluation of OMS, including masticatory behavior, using a validated protocol. The 3D facial soft tissue was assessed using laser scanning. ResultsCompared to the CG, DFD patients showed reduced MBF, masticatory behavior, and OMS scores at T0. At T2, there was an improvement in MBF, masticatory, and OMS scores, but differences were observed compared to the CG. Changes in facial soft tissue followed the underlying hard tissue movement resulting from surgery, and reduction of vertical measurements contributed to improvements in masticatory function. ConclusionThese findings indicated that combined surgery, orthodontic treatment, and speech therapy can lead to a significant improvement in masticatory function and facial soft tissue in DFD patients, although not completely 12 months post-surgery.

Facial basis of stereotypes: Judgements of warmth and competence based on cross-group typicality/distinctiveness of faces.

Human migration is an increasingly common phenomenon and migrants are at risk of disadvantageous treatment. We reasoned that migrants may receive differential treatment by locals based on the closeness of their facial features to the host average. Residents of Türkiye, the country with the largest number of refugees currently, served as participants. Because many of these refugees are of Arabic origin, we created target facial stimuli varying along the axis connecting Turkish and Arabic morphological prototypes (excluding skin colour) computed using geometric morphometrics and available databases. Participants made judgements of two universal dimensions of social perception-warmth and competence-on these faces. We predicted that participants judging faces manipulated towards the Turkish average would provide higher warmth and competence ratings compared to judging the same faces manipulated towards the Arabic average. Bayesian statistical tools were employed to estimate parameter values in multilevel models with intercorrelated varying effects. The findings did not support the prediction and revealed raters (as well as target faces) to be an important source of variation in social judgements. In the absence of simple cues (e.g. skin colour, group labels), the effect of facial morphology on social judgements may be much more complex than previously assumed.

Early moderate prenatal alcohol exposure and maternal diet impact offspring DNA methylation across species.

Alcohol consumption in pregnancy can affect genome regulation in the developing offspring but results have been contradictory. We employed a physiologically relevant murine model of short-term moderate prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) resembling common patterns of alcohol consumption in pregnancy in humans. Early moderate PAE was sufficient to affect site-specific DNA methylation in newborn pups without altering behavioural outcomes in adult littermates. Whole-genome bisulfite sequencing of neonatal brain and liver revealed stochastic influence on DNA methylation that was mostly tissue-specific, with some perturbations likely originating as early as gastrulation. DNA methylation differences were enriched in non-coding genomic regions with regulatory potential indicative of broad effects of alcohol on genome regulation. Replication studies in human cohorts with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder suggested some effects were metastable at genes linked to disease-relevant traits including facial morphology, intelligence, educational attainment, autism, and schizophrenia. In our murine model, a maternal diet high in folate and choline protected against some of the damaging effects of early moderate PAE on DNA methylation. Our studies demonstrate that early moderate exposure is sufficient to affect fetal genome regulation even in the absence of overt phenotypic changes and highlight a role for preventative maternal dietary interventions.

Body shape rather than facial emotion of others alters interpersonal distance in patients with anorexia nervosa.

The study investigated interpersonal distance in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), focussing on the role of other's facial expression and morphology, also assessing physiological and subjective responses. Twenty-nine patients with AN and 30 controls (CTL) were exposed to virtual characters either with an angry, neutral, or happy facial expression or with an overweight, normal-weight, or underweight morphology presented either in the near or far space while we recorded electrodermal activity. Participants had to judge their preferred interpersonal distance with the characters and rated them in terms of valence and arousal. Unlike CTL, patients with AN exhibited heightened electrodermal activity for morphological stimuli only, when presented in the near space. They also preferred larger and smaller interpersonal distances with overweight and underweight characters respectively, although rating both negatively. Finally, and similar to CTL, they preferred larger interpersonal distance with angry than neutral or happy characters. Although patients with AN exhibited behavioural response to emotional stimuli similar to CTL, they lacked corresponding physiological response, indicating emotional blunting towards emotional social stimuli. Moreover, they showed distinct behavioural and physiological adjustments in response to body shape, confirming the specific emotional significance attached to body shape.

Is emotion perception altered by gaze direction, gender appearance, and gender identity of the perceived face?

The purpose of the present study was to examine how gaze and emotion processing may change due to differences in gender appearance and gender identity of the perceived face. We manipulated gender appearance (male or female), gender identity (cisgender or transgender), gaze direction (direct or averted), and expressed emotions (anger, fear, or neutral) of face models in an emotion rating task. We replicate several previous findings, including a direct gaze advantage, an emotion effect, and an interaction between gaze direction and expressed emotion. In line with previous findings on the influence of facial morphology for face processing, we found that male faces were more quickly and intensely perceived for displays of anger, while female faces were more quickly and intensely perceived for displays of fear. Of key interest, gender identity influenced face perception for different emotion expressions and gaze directions for ratings and reaction times in a variety of ways. For example, transgender male faces were seen as angrier and less fearful than cisgender male faces, while the opposite effect occurred for female faces. These results suggest that face perception is systematically shaped by morphological differences as well as more abstract social constructs related to gender identity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Hard and Soft Tissue Facial Landmarks for Mandibular Angle Reduction: A Clinical Study.

Square faces, which are influenced by genetic factors and structural features, are considered undesirable among the Asian population. Surgical interventions, such as mandibular angle reduction, aim to alter these characteristics, though complications may arise. We aimed to investigate the morphology of the mandibular angle and masseter muscle thickness using computed tomography (CT) and to analyze hard and soft tissue correlations to enhance surgical outcomes for patients with square faces. This retrospective clinical study included 100 Taiwanese patients aged 18-50 years. CT was used to analyze key clinical parameters, including bilateral mandibular width, mandibular divergence angle, ramus height, distance from the mandibular angle to the inferior alveolar nerve (IAN), and the thickness of the masseter muscle. Significant correlations were noted between the patients' physical height and weight, mandibular width, ramus height, masseter thickness, and distance from the angle to the IAN. Males exhibited a significantly longer and thicker ramus height (66.48 ± 4.28 mm), greater masseter thickness (15.46 ± 2.35 mm), and greater safety range for mandibular angle reduction surgery (18.35 ± 3.19 mm) (p < 0.00008). Significant correlations were observed among all parameters, except between mandibular width and gonial angle and the distance from the angle to the IAN and between mandibular divergence and masseter muscle thickness (p > 0.1). Our study highlighted the complex interplay among factors that contribute to square facial morphology. Careful preoperative assessments and customized surgical planning are essential for addressing this multifaceted clinical challenge.

Using A Disentangled Neural Network to Objectively Assess the Outcomes of Midfacial Surgery in Syndromic Craniosynostosis.

Advancements in artificial intelligence and the development of shape models that quantify normal head shape and facial morphology provide frameworks by which the outcomes of craniofacial surgery can be compared. In this work, we will demonstrate the use of the Swap Disentangled Variational Autoencoder (SD-VAE) to objectively assess changes following midfacial surgery. Our model is trained on a dataset of 1405 3D meshes of healthy and syndromic patients which was augmented using a technique based on spectral interpolation. Patients with a diagnosis of Apert and Crouzon syndrome who had undergone sub- or trans-cranial midfacial procedures utilising rigid external distraction were then interpreted using this model as the point of comparison. A total of 56 patients met our inclusion criteria, 20 with Apert and 36 with Crouzon syndrome. By using linear discriminant analysis to project the high-dimensional vectors derived by SD-VAE onto a 2D space, the shape properties of Apert and Crouzon syndrome can be visualised in relation to the healthy population. In this way, we are able to show how surgery elicits global shape changes in each patient. To assess the regional movements achieved during surgery, we use a novel metric derived from the Malahanobis distance to quantify movements through the latent space. Objective outcome evaluation, which encourages in-depth analysis and enhances decision making, is essential for the progression of surgical practice. We have demonstrated how artificial intelligence has the ability to improve our understanding of surgery and its effect on craniofacial morphology.

Effect of Tongue Position on Facial Morphology of Pakistani Adults and Different Growth Patterns.

To determine the effect of tongue position on facial morphology of Pakistani adults and different growth patterns. Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of the Study:Department of Orthodontics, Karachi Medical and Dental College, Karachi, Pakistan, from January to April 2021. The study included individuals aged 17 to 30 years with no history of prior orthodontic treatment, absence of wound, burn, or scar tissue in the neck region, comfortable breathing through the nose, absence of deglutition disorder, and a skeletal Class I or II relationship. The exclusion criteria were a cleft lip or palate, or a history of chronic mouth breathing, snoring, or tonsillectomy. According to their skeletal relationships, the subjects were split into three groups; Group I (low-angle), Group II (normal growth), and Group III (high-angle). Vertical growth pattern was assessed on radiograph by interpreting the values of NS / ML (nasion-sella / mandibular plane) angle, and angle formed between FH / ML (Frankfort horizontal plane / mandibular plane). A predesigned proforma was used to record all the measurements made on pre-treatment lateral cephalograms by the sole investigator. Data were analysed using SPSS 24.0. Data from the lateral cephalogram of 79 patients, consisting of 18 (22.8%) males and 61 (77.2%) femaleswho met the inclusion criteria, were analysed.The sample included 15 low-angle, 45 normal vertical growth, and 19 high-angle cases. Fifty participants had Class I skeletal relationships, while 29 had Class II relationships. According to the ANOVA test, FH / ML and NS / ML measurements showed no statistically significant variations in tongue position and growth trends. There was no statistically significant difference between tongue position and facial morphology of Class I or II subjects with different vertical growth patterns. However, there was a statistically sufficient evidence showing the tongue height was greater in Class I skeletal relationship patients as compared to Class II skeletal cases (p = 0.008). Tongue position, Tongue space, Tongue length, Growth pattern.

Sella turcica and facial bones: Morphological integration in the human fetal cranium.

The cranial base plays a significant role in facial growth, and closer analyses of the morphological relationship between these two regions are needed to understand the morphogenesis of the face. Here, we aimed to study morphological integration between the sella turcica (ST) and facial bones during the fetal period using geometric morphometrics. Magnetic resonance images of 47 human fetuses in the Kyoto Collection, with crown-rump lengths of 29.8-225 mm, were included in this study. Anatomical homologous landmarks and semilandmarks were registered on the facial bones and the midsagittal contour of the ST, respectively. The shape variations in the craniofacial skeleton and the ST were statistically investigated by reducing dimensionality using principal component analysis (PCA). Subsequently, the morphological integration between the facial bones and ST was investigated using two-block partial least squares (2B-PLS) analysis. PCA showed that small specimens represented the concave facial profile, including the mandibular protrusion and maxillary retrusion. The 2B-PLS showed a strong integration (RV coefficient = 0.523, r = .79, p < .01) between the facial bones and ST. The curvature of the anterior wall of the ST was highly associated with immature facial morphology characterized by a concave profile. The strong integration between the two regions suggested that the anterior ST may be associated with facial morphology. This result quantitatively confirms previous studies reporting ST deformities in facial anomalies and induces further research using postnatal subjects.

Innovative Approaches to Clinical Diagnosis: Transfer Learning in Facial Image Classification for Celiac Disease Identification

Background: Celiac disease arises from gluten consumption and shares symptoms with other conditions, leading to delayed diagnoses. Untreated celiac disease heightens the risk of autoimmune disorders, neurological issues, and certain cancers like lymphoma while also impacting skin health due to intestinal disruptions. This study uses facial photos to distinguish individuals with celiac disease from those without. Surprisingly, there is a lack of research involving transfer learning for this purpose despite its benefits such as faster training, enhanced performance, and reduced overfitting. While numerous studies exist on endoscopic intestinal photo classification and a few have explored the link between facial morphology measurements and celiac disease, none have concentrated on diagnosing celiac disease through facial photo classification. Methods: This study sought to apply transfer learning techniques with VGG16 to address a gap in research by identifying distinct facial features that differentiate patients with celiac disease from healthy individuals. A dataset containing a total of 200 facial images of adult individuals with and without celiac condition was utilized. Half of the dataset had a ratio of 70% females to 30% males with celiac condition, and the rest had a ratio of 60% females to 40% males without celiac condition. Among those with celiac condition, 28 were newly diagnosed and 72 had been previously diagnosed, with 25 not adhering to a gluten-free diet and 47 partially adhering to such a diet. Results: Utilizing transfer learning, the model achieved a 73% accuracy in classifying the facial images of the patients during testing, with corresponding precision, recall, and F1 score values of 0.54, 0.56, and 0.52, respectively. The training process involved 50,178 parameters, showcasing the model’s efficacy in diagnostic image analysis. Conclusions: The model correctly classified approximately three-quarters of the test images. While this is a reasonable level of accuracy, it also suggests that there is room for improvement as the dataset contains images that are inherently difficult to classify even for humans. Increasing the proportion of newly diagnosed patients in the dataset and expanding the dataset size could notably improve the model’s efficacy. Despite being the first study in this field, further refinement holds promise for the development of a diagnostic tool for celiac disease using transfer learning in medical image analysis, addressing the lack of prior studies in this area.

A multi-ancestry GWAS meta-analysis of facial features and its application in predicting archaic human features

Facial morphology, a complex trait influenced by genetics, holds great significance in evolutionary research. However, due to limited fossil evidence, the facial characteristics of Neanderthals and Denisovans have remained largely unknown. In this study, we conducted a large-scale multi-ethnic meta-analysis of the genome-wide association study (GWAS), including 9674 East Asians and 10,115 Europeans, quantitatively assessing 78 facial traits using 3D facial images. We identified 71 genomic loci associated with facial features, including 21 novel loci. We developed a facial polygenic score (FPS) that enables the prediction of facial features based on genetic information. Interestingly, the distribution of FPSs among populations from diverse continental groups exhibited relevant correlations with observed facial features. Furthermore, we applied the FPS to predict the facial traits of seven Neanderthals and one Denisovan using ancient DNA and aligned predictions with the fossil records. Our results suggested that Neanderthals and Denisovans likely shared similar facial features, such as a wider but shorter nose and a wider endocanthion distance. The decreased mouth width was characterized specifically in Denisovans. The integration of genomic data and facial trait analysis provides valuable insights into the evolutionary history and adaptive changes in human facial morphology.

Increasing Vertical Dimension of a Case with Full Mouth Rehabilitation: Case Report.

Introduction: Bruxism is one of the most frequent causes for occlusal tooth wear, with the loss of tooth structure caused by mechanical wear between maxillary and mandibular tooth surfaces, case report was conducted to improve the patient oral health, and to maintain the new vertical dimension since it was lost by teeth clenching. Case description: this paper presents a 50 years old male suffering from severe bruxism, which implicated the appearance and function of the patient, he was transferred to TIU dental hospital for full mouth rehabilitation treatment. Discussion: The rehabilitation of patients with extensive occlusal wear is complex and difficult to solve, becoming thus one of the biggest challenges of dentistry, a proper planning of a prosthetic rehabilitation should not attribute the re-establishing of occlusal vertical dimension (OVD) to new prostheses at the risk of the patient doesn’t adapt to a new condition of vertical dimension. Conclusion: Tooth wear causes dimensional changes in facial morphology and OVD decrease. The correct determination of occlusal vertical dimension represents a factor of success in the rehabilitation treatment. Keywords: Vertical Dimension, Rehabilitation, Full Mouth, Bruxism.

AI-generated faces show lower morphological diversity than real faces do

Some recent studies suggest that artificial intelligence can create realistic human faces subjectively unrecognizable from faces of real people. We have compared static facial photographs of 197 real men with a sample of 200 male faces generated by artificial intelligence to test whether they converge in basic morphological characteristic such as shape variation and bilateral asymmetry. Both datasets depicted standardized faces of European men with a neutral expression. Then we used geometric morphometrics to investigate their facial morphology and calculate the measures of shape variation and asymmetry. We found that the natural faces of real individuals were more variable in their facial shape than the artificially generated faces were. Moreover, the artificially synthesized faces showed lower levels of facial asymmetry than the control group. Despite the rapid development of generative adversarial networks, natural faces are thus still statistically distinguishable from the artificial ones by objective measurements. We recommend the researchers in face perception, that aim to use artificially generated faces as ecologically valid stimuli, to check whether their stimuli morphological variance is comparable with that of natural faces in a target population.

Computer-based facial recognition as an assisting diagnostic tool to identify children with Noonan syndrome

BackgroundNoonan syndrome (NS) is a rare genetic disease, and patients who suffer from it exhibit a facial morphology that is characterized by a high forehead, hypertelorism, ptosis, inner epicanthal folds, down-slanting palpebral fissures, a highly arched palate, a round nasal tip, and posteriorly rotated ears. Facial analysis technology has recently been applied to identify many genetic syndromes (GSs). However, few studies have investigated the identification of NS based on the facial features of the subjects.ObjectivesThis study develops advanced models to enhance the accuracy of diagnosis of NS.MethodsA total of 1,892 people were enrolled in this study, including 233 patients with NS, 863 patients with other GSs, and 796 healthy children. We took one to 10 frontal photos of each subject to build a dataset, and then applied the multi-task convolutional neural network (MTCNN) for data pre-processing to generate standardized outputs with five crucial facial landmarks. The ImageNet dataset was used to pre-train the network so that it could capture generalizable features and minimize data wastage. We subsequently constructed seven models for facial identification based on the VGG16, VGG19, VGG16-BN, VGG19-BN, ResNet50, MobileNet-V2, and squeeze-and-excitation network (SENet) architectures. The identification performance of seven models was evaluated and compared with that of six physicians.ResultsAll models exhibited a high accuracy, precision, and specificity in recognizing NS patients. The VGG19-BN model delivered the best overall performance, with an accuracy of 93.76%, precision of 91.40%, specificity of 98.73%, and F1 score of 78.34%. The VGG16-BN model achieved the highest AUC value of 0.9787, while all models based on VGG architectures were superior to the others on the whole. The highest scores of six physicians in terms of accuracy, precision, specificity, and the F1 score were 74.00%, 75.00%, 88.33%, and 61.76%, respectively. The performance of each model of facial recognition was superior to that of the best physician on all metrics.ConclusionModels of computer-assisted facial recognition can improve the rate of diagnosis of NS. The models based on VGG19-BN and VGG16-BN can play an important role in diagnosing NS in clinical practice.

Age-Invariant Cross-Age Face Verification using Transfer Learning

The integration of face verification technology has become indispensable in numerous safety and security software systems. Despite its promising results, the field of face verification encounters significant challenges due to age-related disparities. Human facial characteristics undergo substantial transformations over time, leading to diverse variations including changes in facial texture, morphology, facial hair, and eyeglass adoption. This study presents a pioneering methodology for cross-age face verification, utilizing advanced deep learning techniques to extract resilient and distinctive facial features that are less susceptible to age-related fluctuations. The feature extraction process combines handcrafted features like Local Binary Pattern/Histogram of Oriented Gradients with deep features from MobileNetV2 and VGG-16 networks. As the texture of the facial skin defines the age related characteristic the well-known texture feature extractors like LBP and HoG is preferred. These features are concatenated to achieve fusion, and subsequent layers fine-tune them. Experimental validation utilizing the Cross-Age Celebrity Dataset demonstrates remarkable efficacy, achieving an accuracy of 98.32%.

Diagnostic assessment of jaw bone density in school-age children using chewing gum

Relevance. The article is devoted to the issue of diagnosing the condition of the jaw bone tissue in children with mixed dentition. The relevance of the study is related to the increased consumption of chewing gum by children.The purpose of this study was to evaluate the echodensity of the jaw bone tissue in patients with mixed dentition using chewing gum with varying intensity.Materials and methods. We examined 31 children, the average age was 8.5±1.2 years. It is at this age that the active formation of facial morphology and anatomy takes place, which is directly related to the condition of the jaw bones. For diagnosis, an ultrasound technique was chosen – osteometry. This method is based on assessing the speed of propagation of ultrasound waves along the surface of the bone. In addition, in comparison with radiation, ultrasound methods for studying bone tissue have significant advantages, expressed in the reliability of the results obtained, low cost of procedures, ease of use, absence of radiation for personnel and patients, and minimal research time. From a practical point of view, this method is the most accessible in a dental office. Echoosteometry was carried out using the Echoosteometer EOM-01TS apparatus.Results. Based on the study, it was revealed that there was an imbalance in bone density in children who actively used chewing gum.