Facial soft tissue thicknesses in the present Czech Population

Abstract

The aim of this study was to find any relation between soft facial tissue thickness (FSTT) and sex, age and asymmetry in the contemporary Czech population. The studied sample consisted of head CT scans of 102 adult Czech individuals between the ages of 21 and 83. Forty FSTTs were evaluated and analysed using PCA, Hotelling's T(2) test, LDA, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, MANOVA, the Kruskal-Wallis test and Wilcoxon's paired test. The greatest sexual dimorphism was detected in the lower part of the face, which had discriminant power almost the same as the entire faces (approximately 80%). On the other hand, a significant influence of aging was shown, mostly in the area of the upper face (In females, twice as many landmarks displayed a significant influence, compared with males). The influence of asymmetry was confirmed in seven bilateral landmarks, five of them favouring the right side.

Keywords: Computer tomography; Craniofacial reconstruction; Forensic anthropology population data; Forensic science; Sexual dimorphism; Soft tissue thickness.