Identification of suitable predictors for inter canine width: An anthropometric study

The aim of this study was to correlate the inter -canine width with four anatomical measures of vertical height of little finger, external ear, inter-canthal distance, and inter-alar width. A cross sectional study was conducted on 200 subjects belonging to the age group of 19-23 years, attending the outpatient department of Gitam Dental College, Andhra Pradesh, using systematic random sampling. Of the 200 subjects participated in the study, 124(62%) were females and the mean age of the study participants was 19.34±2.13 years. Inter-alar width was found to have significant positive correlation with inter-canine width. No significant correlations were observed between inter-canine width and the other variables, namely, inter-canthal distance, length of little finger, and the length of ear. Biometric ratio of 1.128 can be used to derive the inter-canine width from inter-alar width. The findings of this study can be used in concomitance with the clinician's judgement and patients' preferences. Key Words: Biometric ratio, Edentulism, Inter-alar width, Inter-canine width