Journal time! This is an article out of the Aesthetic Surgery Journal 2018. “Quantification of the Aesthetically Desirable Female Midface Position.” They created a catchy parameter “WIZDOM” to find idealized facial proportions. (My daughter actually did this for her science fair project looking at PHI and the golden ratio for facial beauty.) They looked at photographs, using 3 examiners to look at 55 female models. They standardized the photo height by standardizing the size of the cornea.
They studied this to help get guidelines for how much should you elevate the midface? How much volume should you add?
- interpupillary distance
- medial canthus to lip
- brow length,
- WIZDOM (wide of the inter-zygomatid distance of the midface)
- WIZDOM to medial canthus
- WIZDOM to hairline
- WIZDOM to chin
- lateral brow to WIZDOM
What did they find?
- average interpupillary distance 59.2mm
- WIZDOM 108mm
- brow length 107mm *NOTE: this is the same as the WIZDOM measurement, so the zygomaxillary point should peak below the lateral eyebrow.
the WIZDOM measurement was reproducible and could be used to quantify aesthetically desirable midfacial position in patients. They discuss the mathematics of beauty, and how many people before them have tried to quantitate it. The bizygomatic distance is the widest portion of the face, the ogee curve for midfacial contour, some use phi 1.618x as the distance medial canthus (where x – the medial canthus to medial canthus distance). The WIZDOM line rises with midface procedures.
They acknowledge limitations in their study: the models were photoshopped, there are many other contributions to ideals and beauty.
But I appreciate their study. There is something to the mathematics of beauty and proportion.