Why is a small chin often associated with a youthful appearance?

Hello,

This is Dr. Jongrim Park, a specialist in bone structure.

Lately, "youthful appearance" has been a hot topic.

Regardless of age, people are making efforts to look more youthful.

This trend is also noticeable in contouring surgeries, which I frequently perform.

Many people want to make their chins shorter and smaller.

But why does having a small chin make someone look younger? 


The graph above represents the growth curve of our body.

It might look complex, but when you break it down, it’s not too difficult to understand.

The x-axis represents time. The leftmost point indicates birth, and as you move to the right, it represents aging.

The graph for the brain shows a rapid increase right after birth.
From the moment we are born, the brain grows significantly,
and by around the age of 10, it almost reaches the size of an adult’s head.

However, the face grows later than the brain.

If you look at the size at age 10, the head is quite large,
but the face (especially the chin) remains very small.
By the age of 15, the head is nearly the same size as an adult's, but the chin is still relatively small.
Around age 18, the proportions of the face become similar to those of an adult,
but the chin is still slightly smaller.

It seems that people are striving for these youthful facial proportions.

Although this is not something taught in school,
our "brain" instinctively recognizes a "youthful face."


That’s why many people edit their photos to make their lower face appear smaller!

Recently, with youthful-looking faces becoming a trend,
more patients are requesting slightly shorter chins
when planning their surgeries compared to before.

Of course, shorter doesn’t always mean better.
Proportion and balance are crucial,
so it’s very important to have thorough discussions with patients
and come up with a well-considered compromise before surgery.

Thank you! 😊

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