Cephalometric Downs' analysis. A mathematical framework

Cephalometric procedure for craniofacial analysis is a very important procedure in orthodontics. Downs' analysis involves tedious geometric and analytic manual calculations to be performed on the X-ray or tracing of the profile of a skull. In this paper we have attempted to emulate this manual operation by modeling the process and creating a software that automatically calculates the required measurements. The orthodontist loads the lateral cephalogram (ceph) and the co-ordinates or landmarks are identified using a mouse interface. The identified landmarks are passed as inputs for the diagnosis module. The standard values are maintained as a table. The calculated values are compared with the standards and appropriate inferences are displayed. The program is also a user friendly one.