Annual serial records in the form of facial contour maps were examined for 18 like-sexed twin pairs of near equal zygosity distribution. Zygosity diagnosis was based primarily on hematological reports for 26 of the 36 children and the remainder were diagnosed on a basis of the concordance or discordance of various physical characteristics: standing height, finger print ridge count, tooth size, and hair and eye colour. Thirteen facial parameters were measured on 274 maps. After age correcting and three-point smoothing, more than 1,150 intrapair differences of individual facial parameters were measured. In general, the dizygotic twin pairs had the larger mean intrapair differences in facial parameters and the monozygotic twin pairs had the smaller intrapair mean differences. The more important facial parameters for distinguishing the two groups were identified and used to calculate a "facial similarity index".

We studied nine patients with Paget's disease affecting the skull or facial bones, who were subsequently treated with either dichloromethylene diphosphonate (clodronate) or ethylene-1-hydroxy-1,1-diphosphonate (etidronate). Long-term treatment induced a clinical and biochemical improvement in eight, and this was associated with a reduction in maxillary or skull volume as assessed by quantitative stereophotogrammetry. The one patient whose disease was resistant to treatment with diphosphonate, showed no change in maxillary shape. These studies suggest that the long-term control of disease activity attained with diphosphonates, results in the improvement of skeletal deformity.

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