Facial Soft Tissue Similarity between Children and Parents compared with the Corresponding Similarity between Children

Objective: The investigation was aimed at studying genetic transmission of soft tissue facial features by comparing the degree of correlation of facial soft tissue features similarities between children and their parents, and children and their older siblings of the same gender, in order to explore the possibility of predicting adult soft tissue form. Materials and methods: The study group comprised of 30 pairs of biologic parents and their 60 children—two children of the same gender per pair such that the older one was more than 18 years of age and the younger one was less than 14 years of age. The control group consisted of 30 pairs of nonrelated parents. Scanned tracings of standardized frontal photographs were used for analyzing four groups of facial parameters. Correlation coefficient was calculated to asses the degree of facial similarity among various pairs. Results: Degree of correlation from the highest to the lowest was seen in the following order: Between the midparents and offspring pairs, mother and older offspring pairs, older sibling and younger offspring pairs (especially for the male sample), father and older offspring pairs and father and younger offspring pairs. Similarity between children and the control group was negligible. Conclusion: There is a fairly strong genetic control in the transmission of soft tissue facial characteristics. The correlations are helpful in forecasting the growth of soft tissue features of children by comparison with the parents or older siblings.