Palatal surface area of maxillary plaster casts - A comparison between two-dimensional and three-dimensional measurements

Objective: To investigate the relationship between corresponding two-dimensional and three-dimensional measurements on maxillary plaster casts taken from photographs and three-dimensional surface scans, respectively. Materials and Methods: Corresponding two-dimensional and three-dimensional measurements of selected linear distances, curve lengths, and (surface) areas were carried out on maxillary plaster casts from individuals with unilateral or bilateral cleft lip and palate. The relationship between two-dimensional and three-dimensional measurements was investigated using linear regression. Results and Conclusions: Error sources in the measurement of three-dimensional palatal segment surface area from a two-dimensional photograph were identified as photographic distortion (2.7%), interobserver error (3.3%), variability in the orientation of the plaster cast (3.2%), and natural shape variation (4.6%). The total error of determining the cleft area/palate surface area ratio was 15%. In population studies, the effect of using two-dimensional measurements is a decrease of discriminating power. In well-calibrated setups, a two-dimensional measurement of the cleft area/palate surface area ratio may be converted to a three-dimensional measurement by use of a multiplication factor of 0.75.