Classifications of Frontal Facial Soft Tissue Patterns in Skeletal Class Ⅲ Malocclusion Patients with Mandibular Deviation:

In patients with skeletal mandibular prognathism and chin deviation, evaluating frontal soft tissue morphology is essential for accurate diagnosis and treatment planning.This study aimed to classify and visualize frontal soft tissue morphology using Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) and to examine how the extracted patterns relate to mandibular skeletal deviation.The study included 92 patients (45 males, 47 females) diagnosed with skeletal mandibular prognathism with Menton (Me) deviation of 1.0 mm or more.Using standardized frontal facial photographs taken at the initial visit, 90 soft tissue landmarks and four external reference points were extracted.These two-dimensional coordinates were input into the SOM algorithm, which automatically learned and structured the data to classify and visualize frontal soft tissue patterns.Skeletal