Purpose: The object of this investigation was to determine whether young women considered as beautiful differ in their three-dimensional facial characteristics from normal women of the same age and race.
Methods: The three-dimensional coordinates of 22 standardized soft-tissue facial landmarks were automatically collected in two groups of women using a noninvasive instrument. The first group consisted of 10 white television actresses selected only on the basis of their soft-tissue facial appearance ("beautiful" group); the second group included 40 healthy, white women selected according to criteria of dentofacial normality ("normal" group). The x, y, and z coordinates of the points collected on each woman were used to calculate several three-dimensional angles, linear distances, linear distance ratios, and facial volumes.
Results: The facial morphometric characteristics within the beautiful group were more uniform than within the normal group. On average, the beautiful women had a larger forehead, a larger middle facial third relative to the total face, a wider (left-right dimension) and less deep (anteroposterior dimension) face, a smaller nose, and a less convex face (in both the sagittal and transversal planes) than the normal women.
Conclusion: The three-dimensional cutaneous facial characteristics of the beautiful women were significantly different from the characteristics of the normal women.