Journal of AdvancedMedical and Dental Sciences Research

Context: Facial appearance is largely governed by the periorbital characteristics. The appearance of periorbital tissues varies with age, sex, and most importantly the region. Ethnic and racial difference in the appearance of eyelids is common. Anthropometric data of various populations has been studied in the past. However, there is little information on various periocular parameters of population of North India,hence our study was conducted to determine the average values of the same in people with North Indian ethnicity. Methods: Frontal view photographs were acquired for 200 North Indian adults between the ages 21 and 60 years. Anthropometric measurements done included palpebral fissure width (PFW), palpebral fissure height (PFH), inter pupillary distance (IPD), intercanthal distance (ICD) and outer canthal distance (OCD). Data was categorized by demographic variables and analyzed. Results: The mean value obtained were- palpebral fissure width (males:31.17±3.65mm; females:29.54±2.38 mm), palpebral fissure height (males:11.14±1.51mm; females:11.08±1.16 mm), inter pupillary distance (males:67.38±6.51mm; females:65.74±3.50 mm), intercanthal distance (males:35.67±3.20mm; females:34.72±2.65 mm) and outer canthal distance (males:96.26±6.73mm; females:94.37±4.99 mm) in the 21-30 years age group. Higher mean values were obtained in males in PFW,IPD and OCD. Gender based similar values were obtained in PFH and ICD. Conclusion: Significant gender based difference in the periocular measurements was found in our study. Our study will help to create a database of these parameters which will be useful to the clinician for evaluation and planning of various aesthetic and post traumatic surgical interventions. Key words: Periocular anthropometry, palpebral fissure, north Indian adults