106 Chapter 5 differences between two sexes were observed [3]. In the cadaver study, the length of the head did not differ significantly for the two sexes, while in the current study there was a significant sex difference for the length of the head. This result could be explained by the lower number of cadavers used in the CBCT study (female N=8, and male N=5) [3] than the larger number of living subjects in the current study (female N=23, and male N=28). In the current study, various anthropometric measurements had a significant correlation with the palatal surface area. This is in contrast with the CBCT study with human cadavers where only a statistically significant correlation between the length of the head and palatal surface area was observed. There are several possible explanations for this result; firstly, the previous study included cadavers with possibly solidified soft tissues. Secondly, the number of included subjects might also influence this observation; the cadaver study had a possibly limited statistical power due to the limited number of cadavers used (N = 12). Although in the current study more significant correlations were found between palatal surface area and facial anthropometric measurements, most of these correlations are poor or fair (± 0.3). Finally, sex differences have influenced these correlations, as males had significant larger head and face proportions then females. For this reason, most significant correlations disappeared after stratifying the subjects based on their sex, especially for males. And so, females had a significant correlation between palatal surface with the mandibular length and the palatal width. Possibly the face type of females attributed to this significant correlation. It could be that that this relates to the fact that the face type of females is different than males; for females the most common face type is mesoprosop (medium-broad face) or euryprosop (short and wide), while for male it is the leptoprosop (long and narrow) and hyperleptoprosop [2, 31]. Previous studies measured not only the palatal surface, but also palatal volume. This palatal volume can contribute to explore the timing of surgery and surgical protocols [12, 20, 26]. In addition, the palatal volume measurements can help to evaluate changes induced by treatment modalities such as rapid palatal expansion and in the orthopaedic treatment of cleft palate cases, and to evaluate changes in orthodontic treatment [12, 20, 26]. Therefore, future studies exploring the relation between the palatal volume and anthropometric measurements are also warranted.
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