Objectives: Mesh analysis is a proportionate cephalometric method that enables the clinician to assess craniofacial disharmonies through distortions of the patient's diagram from its average. The purpose of this study was to obtain a normal mesh diagram for Iranian adults and compare it to American-Africans.
Materials: The materials of this study consisted of 46 lateral cephalograms in NHP obtained for 23 males and 23 adult females with proportional profiles face and class I occlusion. A normal mesh diagram was designed using 33 hard and 16 soft tissue landmarks based on coordinate system on computer. Independent t test was used to compare male and female and one-sample t test was used to compare Iranian population with African-American populations.
Results: The comparison between Iranian male and female showed decreased nasolabial angle, increased thickness of the upper lip, increased soft tissue chin thickness and decreased Gonial angle in male than female. According to the mean differences between Iranian and Caucasians, Iranian men showed more prominent chin and decreased upper face height than Americans, whereas Iranian females showed more prominent nose than American females. The comparison between Iranian and African adults showed more prominent forehead, smaller nasolabial angle and protruded lips and incisors for African males than Iranian males. African females showed increased lower face height, steeper mandibular plane angle, increased genial angle and protruded lips than Iranian females.
Conclusion: The use of specific mesh diagram for each population is demanding for accurate cephalometric analysis.
Keywords: Norm, mesh analysis, NHP