Preferred Chin Projections and Facial Form According to a Person’s Facial Form in Korea

Introduction: One of the most important goals of orthognathic surgery and facial contouring surgery is enhancing facial beauty by improving facial form and outline. Pre-operatively, most facial analyzing methods evaluate the frontal side of the face separately from the lateral side of the face. Therefore, clinicians evaluate patient’s facial form, which is usually categorized into mesocephalic, brachycephalic, or dolicocephalic facial form. It is important to know that patients within each group of facial forms may have different thoughts on esthetic facial form and outline. Therefore, in order to set-up proper surgical treatment objectives to obtain an esthetic facial form and outline, clinicians need to know which group prefers which facial form.  

Subjects and Methods: Facial 3-Dimensional scan (Morpheus 3d Ver. 2.0, Morpheus Co., Ltd. Seoul Korea) was performed on a male and a female volunteer. The captured images were morphed into three different facial forms: mesocephalic, brachycephalic, and dolicocephalic facial form. Facial forms were made according to a facial index scale. Also, five different chin projections were morphed on each facial form. Questionnaire was used to ask 87 respondent (M: 48, F: 39, Age: 29.36±3.06, Residence: Seoul, South Korea) to choose the best profile and worst profile among the five different chin projections on three different facial forms. Statistical analysis (MANOVA) was performed with SPSS Ver.12.0.

Conclusion: Subjects in different categories of facial forms have different views on esthetically pleasing chin position and facial form. A person with a brachycephalic facial form disfavors a retruded chin and a person with a dolicocephalic facial form prefers a retruded chin. Male respondents favor a slightly protruded chin, and female respondents favor a slightly retruded chin.

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