THE EFFECTS OF THUMBSUCKING HABIT ON EXTERNAL NASAL MORPHOLOGY IN YOUNG MEN: A PHOTOGRAMMETRIC STUDY
1Department Otorhinolaryngology, Medical Faculty of Başkent University, Ankara, Turkey Objective: In this study, we planned to determine primarily its effect on the craniofacial development and to measure the distance between the points, which were determined with the photogrammetric measurements over the nasal structures of the participants, who had thumb sucking habit up to 4 years of age in their childhood depending on the position of the hand and the pressure on the external nasal structures.Material and Methods: 20 male participants who have sucked their finger until at least 4 years of age and 30 healthy male volunteers who didn't have any thumb sucking habit were included in our study.
To ensure standardization, each person was photographed at the same distance (1 meter) from the same camera. Photogrammetric evaluation was performed blindly.
We took photos of each participant with the same camera at the same distance (1 m). Measurements were made from the front, lateral and basal profiles and the results were analysed.
Results: As a consequence of this study, nasal type width values were found to be significantly higher and the nose length was significantly shorter compared to the normal values.
Conclusion: These results indicated that ın nasal development period, morphology might be affected depending on many factors in people with thumb sucking behaviour.
Keywords : Thumb sucking, anthropometric measurements, nasal subunits, photogrammetric measurements