www.ajbrui.net Afr. J. Biomed. Res.Vol.15 (May 2012); 141 - 143 Short communication Nasofacial Indices among Children in Southern Nigeria 1Oludiran, O.O., 2Omotoso, D.R., 2Sakpa, C.L 1Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, College of Medicine, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria 2Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria ABSTRACT: The facial and nasal indices are among the most important cephalometric parameters useful in inter- racial and intra- racial morphological classification and categorization. They are useful in the description of the facial and nasal morphological characteristics of human population in different geographical location. This study was carried out to describe the naso- facial morphology of children in the Southern part of Nigeria. Four hundred and eighty children aged 5 to 15 years were randomly selected to represent the larger population. The mean facial index for the male and female children was 87.15 ± 1.70 and 86.25 ± 1.70 respectively. The mean nasal index for the male and female children was 93.45 ± 1.66 and 89.62 ± 1.58 respectively. The nasal index value showed significant sexual variation with the male subjects having higher values than female subjects but the facial index values was not significantly different across gender. This study showed the prevalence of the mesoproscopic face type and the platyrrhine nose type among the children of Southern Nigeria. Key words: Nasal Index, Facial Index, Children, Nigeria INTRODUCTION 1 Physical anthropometry is an aspect of anthropology that involves the measurement of human body dimensions (Heidari et al, 2004; Golalipour et al, 2003). Anthropometric body measurements are affected by factors such as geographical, racial, gender and age (Golalipour et al, 2001a, 2001b). Cephalometry is an important aspect of physical anthropometry in which the dimensions of head and face can be determined (Safikhani et al, 2007; Golalipour et al, 2007). Cepahalometric measurements are useful in forensic medicine, palstic surgery, orthodontics, clinical diagnosis and treatment planning (Heidari et al, 2004; William et al, 1995; Will et al, 1995). The facial and nasal indices are among the most important cephalometric parameters useful in inter- racial classification and intra- racial categorization. There are five categories of face based on the facial index namely: hypereuryproscopic, euryproscopic, *Address for correspondence: E-mail: dayohmts@yahoo.com; +2348034779886 Received: December 2011; Accepted (Revised): February, 2012 mesoproscopic, leptoproscopic and hyperleptoproscopic. Based on the nasal index, there are three categories of nose namely: leptorrhine, mesorrhine and platyrrhine (William et al., 1995; Porter and Olson, 2003). This study was carried out to describe the naso- facial morphology and determine the facial and nasal morphological classification of children aged between 5 to 15 years in the Southern part of Nigeria. MATERIALS AND METHODS This descriptive study was conducted among children in Southern Nigeria. The sample size comprises 480 randomly selected children (245 males and 235 females) age ranged from 5 to 15 years. The length and width of nose and face was measured between relevant anatomical landmarks and recorded. The nasal and facial indices were calculated using the following equations (Romo and Abraham, 2003; Heidari et al, 2004; William et al, 1995). Nasal Index = Nasal Breadth X 100 Nasal Height Facial Index = Facial Length X 100 Facial Width The data obtained was statistically analyzed and the results were compared among males and females subjects. mailto:dayohmts@yahoo.com Nasofacial indices in children 142 Afr. J. Biomed. Res. Vol. 15, No.2, 2012 Oludiran, Omotosho and Sakpa RESULTS From the result represented in Tables 1, the mean nasal index value for male and female children was 93.45 ± 1.66 and 89.62 ± 1.58 respectively. The mean facial index value for male and female children was 87.15 ± 1.45 and 86.25 ± 1.70 respectively. This result therefore showed a significant sexual difference in the nasal index of the children in Southern Nigeria. The morphological classification of the nose represented in Table 2 showed the prevalence of platyrrhine nose type among both male (82.4%) and female (75.3%) children. The result from Table 3 showed the prevalence of mesoproscopic face type among the male (52.2%) and female (46.8%) children. The hyperleptoproscopic face type and the leptorrhine nose type were not observed among the children. Table 1: Mean and Standard Deviation of Nasal and Facial Indices for the Southern Nigerian children Variables Males ( 245 ) Females ( 235 ) Mean ± S. E S. D Mean ± S.E S. D Nasal Index 93.45 ± 1.66 3.40 89.62 ± 1.58 2.97 Facial Index 87.15 ± 1.45 2.25 86.25 ± 1.70 2.47 Table 2: The Frequency and % of the nose types among the Southern Nigerian children Classes Range Males ( 245 ) Females ( 235 ) F % F % Leptorrhine 55 – 69.9 – – – – Mesorrhine 70 – 84.9 43 17.6 58 24.7 Platyrrhine ≥ 85 202 82.4 177 75.3 F = Frequency Table 3: The Frequency and % of the face types among the Southern Nigerian children Classes Range Males ( 245 ) Females ( 235 ) F % F % Hypereuryproscopic ‹ 80 12 4.9 19 8.1 Euryproscopic 80 – 84.5 70 28.6 78 33.2 Mesoproscopic 85 – 89.9 128 52.2 110 46.8 Leptoproscopic 90 – 94.9 35 14.3 28 11.9 Hyperleptoproscopic ≥ 95 – – – – F = Frequency DISCUSSION The facial and nasal indices were both higher among the male than the female children. The nasal index from this study showed a significant sexual variation among the children in Southern part of Nigeria. This is in agreement with the study by Ajayi (2005) which showed no significant differences in the cephalometric measurements between Nigerian boys and girls. The prevalence of mesoproscopic face type from this study was similarly reported by Ewunonu et al, 2006. In their study, the major tribes in Nigeria: Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo were prevalently mesoproscopic: 85.06 ± 3.64, 87.67 ± 3.69 and 86.56 ± 4.08 respectively. This implied no significant racial variation in their facial forms of the three tribes. The prevalence of platyrrhine nose type was in agreement to the result obtained in a study by Oladipo et al, 2007 among the major ethnic groups in Southern Nigeria. From their study, the mean nasal index values of the Yoruba, Igbo and Ijaw tribes were: 89.2, 94.1 and 96.4 respectively. As observed in this study, their study also reported significantly higher values among males than females in the three ethnic groups. 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