Facial esthetics in adolescents and its relationship to “ideal” ratios and angles

Introduction: Many guidelines, norms, and ideal ratios and angles for attractive faces have been proposed in the literature. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that facial attractiveness in adolescents is related to ideal angles and ratios, as indicated in the literature. Methods: Seventy-six laypeople viewed sets of photographs of 64 adolescents and rated them on a visual analog scale (VAS) from 0 to 100. The facial esthetic value of each subject was calculated as a mean VAS score. Three observers recorded the positions of 61 landmarks, and 45 were found to have acceptable reproducibility. Based on these 45 landmarks, 27 ideal ratios on frontal photographs and 26 ideal angles on lateral photographs were identified in the literature. These ratios and angles were calculated on each photograph, and their deviation from the ideal targets in the literature were determined. Each deviation was related to the VAS score. Results: Two ratios and 3 angles had a significant negative correlation with the VAS scores, indicating that beautiful faces have less deviation from the ideal target than less beautiful faces. Together, these variables explained 28.7% of the variance. Conclusions: Few “ideal” ratios and angles have a significant relationship with facial esthetics in adolescents.