Chin and Lower Face V2

While the boom in the facial aesthetics industry is a relatively recent phenomenon, the face, its proportions and its attractiveness have fascinated us since the beginning of time. 

The Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, was renowned for her beauty and exceptional facial structure and is still revered and referenced by fashion designers and aestheticians today, with the popular ‘Nefertiti neck lift’ treatment paying homage to her jawline and facial profile.  Leonardo da Vinci’s The Vitruvian Man demonstrates the ‘Golden Ratio’ of 1.618 that has been used throughout the last millennium to achieve beauty, balance and proportion in art and architecture. Also referred to as Divine Proportion and PHI, this mathematical principle has been employed by many other famous artists including Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt and Salvador Dali.  

When it comes to modern day aesthetics, the Golden Ratio suggests that, for ideal facial proportion, symmetry and attractiveness, our face should be 1.618 times longer than it is wide. Perhaps unsurprisingly, very few of us have faces that meet this perfect dimension!  But the same ratio can be, and often is, used by doctors and aestheticians when giving treatment advice and planning treatment programmes. 

Because virtually none of us have perfect proportions and because no two faces are ever the same, perhaps the defining skill in aesthetics today is the ability to understand the beauty in each patient’s face and what detracts from it.  Then to know how to best to enhance it to meet a patient’s objectives and, of course, have the expertise to treat the patient with maximum efficiency and effect.   

This is where medicine meets art and has been the basis of my philosophy when treating patients for many years. I can’t promise that I can give patients the much sought-after facial structures and perfect jawlines of Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie.  But through a combination of experience, a highly artistic eye, a deep knowledge of facial structure and a thorough understanding of what the latest treatment technologies and products can and can’t deliver, I can help patients achieve individual facial balance and harmony, enhancing their natural beauty and facial features and addressing those that detract from the overall appearance of the face. 

Sometimes this might mean small adjustments, for example the smoothing out of a bump on the nose or lowering or raising its tip.  But usually it is the lower third of the face that holds the key to our overall appearance.  Leonardo Da Vinci divided the face into thirds to help achieve divine proportion, and this principle still holds true today, with the top third extending from the hairline to the eyebrows, the middle third covering the area from the brow to the base of the nose, and lower third extending from the base of the nose to the chin. In a well-proportioned face these thirds are usually equal in height. A shorter lower third of the face can heavily influence its overall appearance, with the chin and jawline being of particular importance. 

A weak chin can also dramatically affect the appearance of the lower jaw and in doing so will impact on the face as a whole.  It is usually a genetic condition that can often have a major effect on the patient’s self-confidence.  I’m increasingly seeing younger patients, many in their early to mid 20’s, for this condition, usually driven by their desire for a more attractive lower face to enhance for their social media posts and profiles, where, to date, they have often covered up their weak chin with a scarf, collar or roll-neck due to self-consciousness or embarrassment.   

I’m also seeing more and more male patients requesting jawline enhancement and treatments for the chin and the lower face.  Some are simply looking to address jowls, sagging skin or other natural signs of ageing or to rectify a naturally receding chin or jawline, while others are looking for that strong-jawed Brad Pitt or Channing Tatum profile that we find so attractive. 

The use of high quality dermal fillers is generally the most popular non-invasive treatment to address a weak chin, adding volume and strengthening the definition of the jawline.  But there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution.  Every patient needs their own bespoke and carefully tailored treatment plan that takes into account their age, skin condition and personal objectives as well as their facial structure.  

This should always start with comprehensive patient consultation that includes detailed analysis of not just facial structure but also of the skin’s surface and sub-surface. For this we use an Observ camera to take multiple images from different angles, so we can fully understand the skin’s makeup, its current state of health and can identify underlying changes or problems beneath the skin’s surface prior to ensure that the most appropriate, compatible and effective treatment recommendations are made and treatment commences. 

For the lower face in particular, where structure and skin need to be addressed hand-in-hand, I will often recommend a combination of treatments to achieve best results. Options might include Aqualyx fat dissolving injections, CoolMini fat freezing, dermal fillers, PDO threads and Profhilo and other treatments to tighten sagging or ageing skin. We’ve recently launched ‘Shape & Sculpt’, a treatment that combines CoolMini for the removal of fat on the chin, with a new, high quality dermal filler that has been specially developed to treat the chin and jawline area. This is now available at all my clinics and is proving both very popular and a highly effective combination and has the added benefit of helping to improve the skin’s texture and tone. 

In summary, whilst there is little doubt that the lower face holds the key to achieving optimum facial balance and attractiveness, it is a combination of research, scientific knowledge, creativity and artistic ability that will unlock it.  After all, what’s good enough for Leonardo should be good enough for us!