The Attractiveness of Facial Profile: A Random Population Survey on the Relationship of Jaws

Introduction

The face is an extremely important feature that plays a central role in communication and social interaction of a species. The human brain has developed specific circuits to read and recognize facial patterns.

On top of that, mankind, more than any other species, has developed the sense of harmony and beauty, when it comes to physical appearances, with special regards to the face.

Objectives

The aim of the study is to evaluate the attractive perception of neutral profile images with different maxillofacial alterations. To do so, the perspective of randomized subjects is taken into consideration, highlighting the possible implication for the maxilla facial surgery.

Methods

A survey has been structured with 18 neutral profiles images, 9 female and 9 males. The profile silhouettes used were converted into black and white images using Adobe Photoshop software, which helps obtaining a better evaluation of the facial attractiveness excluding external factors. The survey was administered to 135 randomized subjects, who were asked to evaluate every single image in a scale from 1 (unattractive) to 5 (extremely attractive).

Results

The summary has shown a tendency of evaluating the normal occlusion profile as attractive, thus revealing a general constancy in the beauty standards. Among the other profiles evaluated, the maxillary protrusion also obtained a high score of evaluation, in terms of attractiveness, registering a score of 3 in 37% of cases and a score of 4 in 35% and 31% for men and women’s profiles, respectively.

The retrognathic maxilla has been evaluated as strongly non-attractive in women (66% of cases); while, it was considered medium attractive, 3 out of 5, in men (38% of cases).

The profiles with mandibular protrusion have been evaluated as non-attractive with score of 2 in 42% of cases in men, and a score of 1 in 41% in women. Interestingly, the bimaxillary profile for both male and female images were considered as neutral by most of the subject, marking a non-statistical difference in comparison with the normal profiles. Statistically different are the data obtained from the other analyzed profiles.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the present study confirmed a significant preference for protrusive profiles rather than a neutral profile for the population examined, highlighting the relevance of including the patients prospective in the beauty evolution.