Title Divine Proportions In The Growing Face
Clinical Question To what extent do patients’ facial proportions change in comparison with the divine values during growth from childhood to adult?
Clinical Bottom Line Facial proportions remain constant during growth. Facial proportions seem to be predetermined in childhood, with only slight variations during growth. The disproportion indexes from divine proportions in the transverse and vertical planes varies between 10.5% and 18.1% in females and 12.0% and 18.3% in males. (See Comments on the CAT below)
Best Evidence  
PubMed ID Author / Year Patient Group Study type
(level of evidence)
18929263Ferring/2008Children with various occlusions Class I to Class IIILongitudinal clinical trial
Key resultsFacial photos from childhood (age 6.5 years), adolescence (17 years), and adulthood (30 years) of each subject were compared. For all photos in both transverse and vertical planes, ideal reference distances were calculated with a base value and the divine proportion. “Facial proportions changed, on average, only a small amount during the growth period from childhood to adulthood, but large inter individual variations were seen. The disproportion indexes in the transverse and vertical planes varied between 10.5% and 18.1% in the female subjects and 12.0% and 18.3% in the male subjects.”
Evidence Search beauty[mesh], facial, divine proportion LIMITS: Published in the last 5 years, Humans, English
Comments on
The Evidence
Care must be taken when examining photos as differing magnifications in photos may skew data and calculations. A direct measure of facial proportions in a clinical exam with double blind protocol would increase the validity. Follow up was over 25 years and adequate. All photos were measured twice, and the mean value was used for final evaluation. Blinding of evaluators was not mentioned. No competing interests were mentioned.
Applicability Divine facial proportions are rarely achieved in ordinary people. Often in treatment planning, growth potential consideration is included. Understanding that disproportion indexes of divine values range from 10.5% to 18.3%, may aid in planning and addressing patient’s concerns about transverse and vertical facial proportions changes in growing patients.
Specialty (General Dentistry) (Orthodontics)
Keywords Facial proportions, divine proportion, facial changes, growth
ID# 891
Date of submission 05/12/2011
E-mail leejs@livemail.uthscsa.edu
Author Josh Lee
Co-author(s)
Co-author(s) e-mail
Faculty mentor Peter T. Gakunga, BDS, MS, PhD
Faculty mentor e-mail GAKUNGA@uthscsa.edu
   
Basic Science Rationale
(Mechanisms that may account for and/or explain the clinical question, i.e. is the answer to the clinical question consistent with basic biological, physical and/or behavioral science principles, laws and research?)
None available
spacer
Comments and Evidence-Based Updates on the CAT
(FOR PRACTICING DENTISTS', FACULTY, RESIDENTS and/or STUDENTS COMMENTS ON PUBLISHED CATs)
by J.M. Womack, B. Vuong (San Antonio, TX) on 11/20/2014
A PubMed search was conducted on 9/31/14. No new significant/pertinent information on the topic was available. The author of this article has produced more recent works related to the topic of divine proportions but not in relation to growth from childhood to adulthood.