NCJ Number
192029
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 46 Issue: 6 Dated: November 2001 Pages: 1294-1302
Date Published
November 2001
Length
9 pages
Annotation
Knowledge of changes in soft-tissue depths during growth and development is important in applied contexts of forensics and dentistry as well as in growth research. This study replicates and extends the findings of Garlie and Saunders, who recently published radiographic data from the Burlington Canadian growth study, by using another sample from another Canadian growth study.
Abstract
The authors present data from a mixed longitudinal sample of French-Canadian children and adolescents. Females (n=159) range in age from 6 to 18 years; males (n=129), from 6 to 19 years. Cephalometric measurements include nine soft-tissue thicknesses, two hard-tissue distances (sella-nasion and nasion-menton), and three measures of nasal projection. Several tissue thicknesses are moderately correlated with one another. The majority of thicknesses show significant sex differences by the time of adolescence; nasion and upper labial thicknesses are significantly different by sex at all ages from 6 to 18 years, as are the two hard-tissue distances; however, thickness at nasion, as well as at glabella, changes little over time. Thickness at pogonion is variable and differs most between males and females at age 16; the length of the anterior inferior portion of the nose is significantly different between the ages of 6 and 12. Measurements display small and slow changes during development. The greatest average change per year (c. 2 mm/year) is for a hard-tissue measure, nasion-menton. The nasal and mid-philtrum regions have greater age changes than do other soft-tissue variables. Much of the variation remains unexplained by changes with age or differences between sexes. 2 figures, 4 tables, and 16 references