[Contribution of three dimensional cephalometry in the study of determining morphological parameters for facial esthetics].

There have been numerous studies of facial esthetics, but few have benefited from the new techniques provided by 3D imaging. The aim of this study is to determine which are the most crucial cephalometric criteria for facial esthetics by identifying the strongest correlations between the esthetic rating and 3D Cephalometric values, the Cepha 3Dt. A group of 91 subjects (from 10 to 60 years of age) was rated by a jury of 50 randomly selected judges (from 12 to 65 years of age) using an analog scale. We then looked for the most important correlations between the esthetic ratings and the tridimensional cephalometric values by using 3D Cephalometric Analysis on a global sample, and on Class II and Class III sub-samples. Facial esthetics therefore appeared to be especially linked to: anterior-posterior dimension, maxillo-mandibular disharmony, relationships between the anterior areas (alveolar and basal), the alveolar region has a greater impact than the basal area on facial architecture. In the Class II group, sagittal discrepancies and mandibular divergence have an equal impact on the assessment of facial esthetics.