Taking it on the chin: recognizing and accounting for lower face asymmetry in chin augmentation and genioplasty.

Abstract

During the course of thousands of preoperative facial analyses, it has become apparent that the chin, in most individuals, appears weaker on the left than on the right. This previously unreported disparity spans age, sex, and ethnicity. To document this finding, frontal and lateral photographs of 20 random patients from the senior author's practice were subjected to a battery of soft-tissue measurements. Analysis of four celebrities further demonstrated the ubiquity of relative left chin weakness. Precedent for asymmetry in human anatomy is abundant (e.g., handedness). Asymmetry, moreover, often is conserved throughout the population (e.g., sidedness of visceral orientation). Left-sided chin weakness appears to be another example of well-preserved anatomical asymmetry. The presence of this asymmetry should be considered in planning chin augmentation and genioplasty.