Soft Tissue Evaluation

Abstract

Orthodontic diagnosis and treatment planning is based on three important components: facial, skeletal and dental diagnoses. In the last years, the impact of facial/dental appearance, the malocclusion, and treatment for these conditions on psychological and functional well-being have drawn increasing attention from clinicians and researchers. Emphasis has been placed on frontal and lateral aesthetics, keeping in mind that facial proportions are more important than absolute numerical values. The most common photo evaluation in orthodontic diagnosis includes the facial frontal, facial profile facial smile, and oblique smile photo. Facial concavity or convexity, lips dimension and position, smile arc, gingival display and over all facial balance should be considered in the overall treatment plan. This chapter, with the question-answer format and clinical examples, describes the surface markings of the face, soft-tissue cephalometric points, facial planes and facial angles.

Keywords: Facial angles, Facial planes, Orthodontic diagnosis, Soft-tissue cephalometric points.

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