Correlations of the Lateral Lip Morphology with Maxillofacial Hard Tissue Features Among Young Chinese Adults with Attractive Lateral Facial Appearances

Lips play an important part in facial aesthetic perception.The lateral lip morphology of young Chinese adults with attractive lateral facial appearances has not been well studied, and the relationship between the lateral lip morphology and the maxillofacial hard tissue features is not yet clear.This study aimed to obtain referable data of the lateral lip morphological characteristics among young Chinese adults with attractive lateral facial appearances and discover potential correlations between lateral lip appearances and hard tissue parameters.Final subjects of 48 males and 56 females were included according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria and the results of visual analogue scale (VAS) evaluation.The lateral morphological characteristics of lips and hard tissue features were characterized through the cephalometric radiographs.Sex differences of each soft tissue item were evaluated, and Pearson correlation coefficients were computed for the correlation analysis between lateral lip characteristics and hard tissue parameters.Sex differences were mainly discovered in the nasolabial angle.The lateral lip appearances of females were more closely related with the hard tissue morphology than that of males, and the lower lipchin profile, the nasolabial angle, the upper lip inclination, UL-EP, and LL-EP showed moderate correlations with several hard tissue parameters respectively.Our results promoted the reference values of lateral lip morphology parameters for young Chinese adults.The correlation analysis provided insights into the soft tissue considerations in treatment planning and into the predictions of the soft tissue change during orthodontic, orthognathic, and prosthodontics procedures.