Anthropometric Study of the Facial Index in the Population of Medical Students in Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Background: Facial anthropometry is useful in individual identification and reconstructive surgery. In the present study, we aimed to determine the facial characteristic of the Iranian population through anthropometric study. Methods: In a cross sectional study, 200 (100 male and 100 female) volunteer medical students (aged 20-25 years) of Tehran University of Medical Sciences were selected. The facial variables including total facial height (TFH), upper facial height (UFH) and facial width (FW) were measured and accordingly the total facial index (TFI) and upper facial index (UFI) were calculated. The data were analyzed using statistical software (SPSS). Results: The mean age of subjects was 22.97±1.12. the mean TFH, UFH, FW, TFI and UFI was 11.155 cm, 7.05 cm, 11.68 cm, 95.75, and 60.55, respectively. The most common types of face were hyperleptoprosopic (54%) and hyperleptene (54%) based on TFI and UFI, respectively. There were significant differences in the facial characteristic including TFH (P<0.0001), UFH (P<0.0001), FW (P=0.02), TFI (P<0.0001), and UFI (P<0.0001) of males and female subjects. Conclusion: According to the results, the most frequent face type was hyperleptoprosopic based on TFI and hyperleptene based on UFI in Iranian population, which showed the differences in the various populations. Additionally, the values of facial characteristics were higher in males than females. So, sexual dimorphism was recorded according to the facial measurements of Iranian population which can be considered in the reconstructive surgeries.