A New Frame for Orienting Infants With Cleft Lip and Palate During 3-Dimensional Facial Scanning

Abstract

Background:

Nonradiographic 3-D assessment of soft tissue facial structures is an ideal tool to measure 3-D facial change and smartphone apps like Bellus 3D have brought these technologies to our doorsteps. Although this app works well for adults, it doesn’t do so well with infants as their stabilization is difficult thus proper alignment becomes problematic often leading to distortion. This seriously hampers the repeatability and reliability of the whole process.

Material and Method:

A stainless steel rod of 150-cm length is curved into a semicircle of a radius of 42.5 cm. Bases are fabricated at both the ends to firmly hold the stand on the table. A Teflon ring of one inch is made for adjusting the diameter of the camera holder. A camera holder is then attached to the Teflon ring. The mobile holder mounted is free to move within the arc. A 3-D facial scan of a single patient was carried out with the camera mounted on the frame and once without the frame. The same was compared using side-by-side comparison and superimposition of the .STL files from the frontal, profile, and worm’s eye view.

Result and Conclusion:

It was found that considerable distortion was noted around the nasal and paranasal areas when the scan was performed without the frame as compared to the one that was taken with the frame. This technique avoided distortion and the difficulty in turning the baby’s head to record the lateral portion of the face.