## 4 Discussion
According to the results of the present study, there are differences between the actual value of the maximum width of the nose and the maximum width of the nose predicted by the regression equation developed by [PERSON] and [PERSON] (Table 7, Figure 6). Therefore, the authors developed a regression formula to predict the aforementioned parameter specific to the adult population of Romania. This research needs to be continued and validated on a larger number of participants. The results confirm the close relationship between the maximum width of the nasal aperture and the maximum width of the nose, the bone being a significant predictor for the morphology of soft tissue (Table 3). At the same time the statistical analysis carried out shows that in the case of the adult population of Romania, the sex of the individual is also an important predictor for estimating the maximum width of the nose starting from the maximum distance of the nasal aperture. Figure 6 highlights the differences between the real values of the maximum nose width of the Romanian adult population and the values resulting from the [PERSON] and colleague's formula (the predicted nose width). Figure 6 also shows that the values predicted according to the regression equation that includes the sex of the participants developed in this research are the closest, one can even say similar to the actual values of the maximum nose width of the adult population of Romania. The second set of values, those predicted as a result of the simple regression equation without taking into account the sex of the participants is slightly larger, but also close to the actual values. These may be important in cases where sex cannot be estimated accurately and we can use only the simple equation, without expecting significant errors. The literature mentions that the nasal morphology interacts statistically with age of the participants, especially for the parameters which outline the nasal structure (the anterior projection, the height and length of the nose) [16; 19]. One study shows a small increasing of the piriform aperture and of the nasal width for each 10 years [7; 24]. In our study, this difference is not applicable because the age is not a predictable factor for maximum width of the nose or for maximum width of the aperture, as resulting from the statistical analysis. Regarding sex as a factor that has been suggested to affect the morphology of the maximum width of the nose, our study confirms the results from the literature [23; 24]. In this research, the authors developed two types of regression formulas to estimate the maximum width of the nose: a regression formula that includes the sex of the participants as well as a regression formula without including the sex of the participants. Both regression formulas have the same mean (Table 7) and slightly different standard deviations, and Figure 6 shows that the results of the two regression formulas have similar values. The regression formula generated from this database, specific to the adult population of Romania regarding the maximum width of the nose, has the advantage that it is easy to use as measurements can be made either using a computer tomographic image or even directly on the available skull. It can also be used for 2D and 3D facial reconstruction. We would like to underline the most important aspect of the study: the authors developed two regression equations for estimating the maximum nose width for Romanian adult population (one including the sex of the person, another one without it). This is an essential aspect for the future of Romanian anthropological research in general, and facial reconstruction in particular. Future research should be carried out based on the measurements of more landmarks and of more anatomical components of the facial skull and from other radiological data.