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a) Those born with facial
deformity such as craniofacial microsomia and cleft lip and palate and
b)
Comparing the differences between these groups and a control population.
We use a non-invasive 3 dimensional (3d) optical surface scanner to record facial measurement in 3d. Most previous work in this field has involved the use of 2d techniques to measure a 3d surface, or more expensive techniques such as stereophotogrammetry, or invasive techniques such as computerised tomography.
The system is very accurate, data collection time is short (10 seconds) to scan a whole face where 60,000 3d profile points are measured,and has been developed by the imaging group here at UCL.
Specially written software programs allow us to visually display the difference between two datasets and also allows us to average groups so that we may know how the face of an average 5 year old female with a cleft of the lip and palate differs in size and shape to that of an equivalent control population.
This system has many clinical benefits, monitoring facial growth to see if the condition worsens or improves therefore providing important clinical information to both surgeon and patient. The system is also very useful in clinical audit.
We have the largest database of 3d facial measurements worldwide.
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