“…In contrast, soft tissue growth and morphology has been extensively studied in normal and abnormal development, as measurements can be easily obtained through anthropometrics (Farkas et al, 1992; Tutkuviene et al, 2015) or surface modelling using 3D imaging (De Souza et al, 2013; Koudelová et al, 2015; Suttie et al, 2013). Craniofacial shape and variation can be quantified using morphometric analysis (MA), which has been widely used to study heterogeneity in soft tissues of the face, classify non-genetic diseases, demonstrate normal growth and facial asymmetry, and link gene expression to facial phenotype (De Souza et al, 2013; Hammond et al, 2003; Hopman et al, 2014). Although quantitative analysis of the facial skeletal tissues for preoperative planning has been undertaken in TCS, this only used cephalometric analysis or focused on mild dysmorphism (Chong et al, 2008; Nikkhah et al, 2013).…”