FACIAL MORPHOMETRY OF TELEVISION ACTRESSES COMPARED WITH NORMAL WOMEN

Purpose: The object of this investigation was to determine whether you ng women considered as beautiful differ in their three-dimensional fac ial characteristics from normal women of the same age and race. Method s. The three-dimensional coordinates of 22 standardized soft-tissue fa cial landmarks were automatically collected in two groups of women usi ng a noninvasive instrument. The first group consisted of 10 white tel evision actresses selected only on the basis of their soft-tissue faci al appearance (''beautiful'' group); the second group included 40 heal thy, white women selected according to criteria of dentofacial normali ty (''normal'' group). The x, y, and z coordinates of the points colle cted on each woman were used to calculate several three-dimensional an gles, linear distances, linear distance ratios, and facial volumes. Re sults: The facial morphometric characteristics within the beautiful gr oup were more uniform than within the normal group. On average, the be autiful women had a larger forehead, a larger middle facial third rela tive to the total face, a wider (left-right dimension) and less deep ( anteroposterior dimension) face, a smaller nose, and a less convex fac e (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 characteris tics of the normal women.