Embargoed until May 11, 2001
Contact: Kenneth S. Satterfield760-776-8502 (5/11-5/16) 703- 519-1563[email protected]
A New Guide Developed for Nasal Analysis of African-American Women
A Texas study assesses will assist nasal plastic surgery for a growing population.
Palm Desert, CA -- Nasal analysis is the first step a surgeon takes prior to performing rhinoplasty, or plastic surgery to change the shape and size of the nose. In plastic surgery literature, ãethnicä and ãnon-Caucasianä are terms most commonly used to encompass people with African, Asian, and Latino heritage.
Many plastic surgeons use a Caucasian standard to perform nasal analysis on all their plastic surgery patients, regardless of ethnic background. In recognition of the growing diversity of Americans seeking plastic surgery, new research now provides a guide for performing a nasal analysis on African-American women.
The authors of the study, African-American Female Nasal Analysis, are Jennifer Parker Porter, MD, and Krista Olson, MD, both from The Bobby R. Alford Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Communicative Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX. Their findings were presented May 13, 2001, before the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Spring Meeting being held in Palm Desert, CA.
Methodology: The Baylor College of Medicine institutional review board approved a study that recruited 107 African-American women as research subjects. The participants were required to be between the ages of 18 and 30 to minimize aging effects on nasal proportions. Additionally, each subject was required to have both parents be of African-American heritage, no prior plastic or reconstructive surgery of the face, no major trauma to the face, a body mass index of less than or equal to 27, and no history of craniofacial syndromes.
Approximately 1,400 anthropometric measurements (those associated with the human body) were taken of the test subjects' face and nasal region. They included measurements of nose length, nose width, special upper face height, distance between the eyes, mouth width, nasal bridge inclination, and nasal tip protrusion. From these measurements, the following indices were calculated: nasal index, nasal tip protrusion-nasal height index, and nasal tip protrusion÷nasal height index.
Results: The findings set out to provide comparisons between Caucasian women and African-American women; at the same time, similarities and differences were measured among African-Americans.
The most notable differences found in measurements of Caucasian and African-American female noses included nose width, nasal root width, the length of the fleshy lower part of the nasal septum, nasal bridge inclination, and the angle between the nose and upper lip. For African-American women, the average nasal tip projection was .60, which is at the upper limit of the Caucasian standard (.55-.60).
Several classification schemes are introduced to aid in the analysis of the African-American nose. These schemes include analysis of: nasal base shape, dorsal height, nostril orientation, and nasal tip width. Previous research studies have produced three categories for physiological classification: African, Afro-Caucasian, and Afro-Indian. The subjects in this study were assigned to one of the three categories, with the majority classified as Afro-Caucasian (52 percent), followed by African (26 percent), and Afro-Indian (22 percent). Within those categories, the researchers found similarities between the Afro-Indian and Afro-Caucasian subgroups, and dissimilarities between the African and both of the other groups.
Conclusion: The differences found between Caucasian and African-American women, and the variability within the latter group, suggests that new standards be adopted for nasal analysis. A preliminary protocol is provided in this study.
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