Purpose: Reconstruction of the facial midplane is relevant in anthropometry, orthodontics, maxillofacial surgery, and the accurate measurement of symmetry deviation is relevant in many fields of medicine especially when planning surgical treatment. In the literature, three different means of midplane generation have been published; however, there is currently no consensus regarding the approach to use. Morphometric methods are used to determine the true midsagittal plane (MSP), but its use in clinical practice is difficult. A regression plane based on N‑ANS-PNS landmarks reportedly approximates the morphometric MSP. As these points are vulnerable, we investigated which combination of landmarks can be substituted in symmetric and asymmetric faces.
Patients and methods: Thirty symmetric and 30 asymmetric faces were analyzed on cone-beam computed tomography scans. A total of 50 regression planes were generated based on three unpaired landmarks and 35 regression planes were generated based the midpoints of paired landmarks. The Na-ANS-PNS plane was used as reference plane, and the mean angle between it and each generated MSP was calculated. The differences from the reference plane were compared by t‑test between the groups.
Results: In the symmetric group, 86% of angles deviated by <5° using unpaired points, whereby 74% of angles deviated by <5° for paired points. Between the two groups 50% of planes from midline points, and 77% of planes from paired points were significantly different. All planes deviated more in the asymmetric group.
Conclusions: The N‑ANS-PNS reference plane can be substituted with the following combinations: ANS-G-Ba, ANS-G-S, ANS-S-De, PNS-G-Ba, PNS-S-Ba, PNS-ANS-G, and PNS-N-Ba.
Keywords: CBCT analysis; Facial asymmetry; Facial symmetry; Midsagittal plane; Orthognathic surgery.