99 Correlations of palatal surface area with anthropometric dimensions Measuring the palatal surface area In order to measure the palatal surface area, an intra-oral scan of the upper jaw including the palate (the whole hard palate and part of the soft palate) was taken with the TRIOS 3 scanner (3Shape, version 21.3.5, Copenhagen, Denmark). The scanning protocol of the manufacturer was followed when scanning the intra-oral upper jaw area. Scans were digitally saved as Polygon File Format (PLY) files. Subsequently, each PLY object was analyzed twice in Meshmixer (Autodesk, San Rafael, CA, USA) by one researcher (ZA). This analysis involved manual separation of the palate by using the vibrating line including visible fovea palatine as a cut-off for the length of the palate. Besides, all palatal mucosa including the gingiva around the upper teeth was included in the palatal surface (Figure 1). After segmentation, the palatal surface areas (in mm2) were determined. Figure 1: Schematic illustration of a typical example of palatal segmentation (in pink). The yellow line indicates the border of segmentation used for the palatal surface area. 5
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