FACIAL PROPORTION , GOLDEN RATIO , AESTHETICS

1. The good, of course, is always beautiful, and the
beautiful never lacks proportion.”
–Plato

2. Facial proportions-
DEPARTMENT OF PROSTHODONTICS
PRESENTED BY
DR C PRADEEP

3. CONTENTS
 INTRODUCTION
 GOLDEN PENTAGON, GOLDEN RECTANGLE
 FACIAL SYMMETRY
 HORIZONTAL THIRDS
 GOLDEN RATIO,GOLDEN PROPORTIONS
 SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE
 Meisner Beauty Guide for Golden Ratio
Facial Analysis
 RESEARCH,STUDY ON GOLDEN RATIO
 CONCLUSION
 REFERENCES

4. Introduction
 It is commonly said that ‘beauty
lies in the eyes of the beholder’.
Nonetheless, is esthetic
judgment entirely subjective and
purely a matter of arbitrary
personal preference or
 could there be some scientific
backings that guide and govern
our perception towards beauty?
 Ancient Greeks have ventured to
question the meaning of beauty
and believed that the world is
beautiful because there is a
certain order, harmony, measure
and proportion between its
elements.

5.  Human Prosthodontics body is
also designed like that. Leonardo
da Vinci has created the famous
drawing –Vitruvian man –
which depicts a male figure in
two superimposed positions with
arms
and legs set apart while
simultaneously
enclosed in a circle and square.
 This is considered as the canon of
proportions of man Da Vinci's
Vetruvian man

6. Golden rectangle , Pentagon
 For many centuries golden proportion has been
considered as an ideal ratio.
 Golden ratio frequently appears in geometry especially
in the diagonals and sides of a pentagon. The Golden
rectangle has a pleasing shape and is frequently found
in art and architecture and appears right to the eye..
Pentagon-the
sides and diagonals
and intersections of
diagonals maintain
golden proportion

7.  One of the interesting properties of the
golden rectangle is that, if a square section
having sides equal to the shortest
 side of the rectangle is cut off, the portion
that remains is also a golden rectangle which
can also be divided in the same pattern.
 In short, the golden ratio is 1: 1.618. The
long and short sides of the rectangle maintain
this ratio
Golden rectangle

8. Facial symmetry is shown to have an effect on
attractiveness of human faces.
 Symmetrical faces are perceived as more attractive
in both males and females, although facial
symmetry plays a larger role in the attractiveness
of female faces.
 No human has a perfectly symmetrical face. Lack
of symmetry of nose makes a face unattractive
whereas asymmetry of lips does not have that
much an impact. Bell’s palsy is a serious medical
condition which makes the face asymmetric
especially during function. Artificially created
facial symmetry in photographs however appears
abnormal
Obama's face is
more or less symmetric
Photographically
constructed
symmetric
face by copying
the left
side

9.  Body parts maintain some proportions for example, the
height of face from chin to top of forehead is equal to the
length of open hand from wrist to the tip of the middle
finger.
 There is an overwhelming concern for gaining attractive
personality in today’s world.
 To make a positive impression, an attractive face with a
disarming smile has an important role. Face gets its
attraction when it maintains a well measured proportion.
This article tries to find out the details of facial proportions
 in all its dimensions. These proportions cannot be
considered as an exact science because beauty is greatly
influenced by social, cultural, ethnic and age factors

10.  . The face can be divided into horizontal thirds.
 :
 The points to be considered are
 Trichion - the beginning of the forehead
 ii. Glabella - the most prominent point of
the forehead between the eyebrows
 iii. Subnasale - point in the mid sagittal
plane where the nasal septum merges into
the upper lip
 iv. Menton - the most inferior point on the
soft tissue chin. These thirds
measure between 55 to 60mm.
Usually these thirds appear equal Upper, middle
and lower thirds of
face

11. Similarly face can be divided vertically
into
five equal parts.
 Width of the face measured
from helix of one ear to the other is equal
to five times the width of one eye from
inner canthus to outer canthus. Between
the eyes also the distance is similar .
Division of face
into vertical fifths

12.  The golden proportion of 1:1.618
exists between many parts of the
face/head.
 Height of the head measured from
hair to chin and width of face
measured at ear level maintains
golden proportion in attractive
faces .
 In most of the studies the face
height is measured from trichion
(top of forehead) to menton (chin)
and compared with the width of the
face. Golden proportion cannot be
obtained with these two
measurements.
 Trichion – Menton average distance
in Indian male is 161mm and width
of face is 135mm.
 For females it is
163 and 124 respectively. Head height to
width has golden
proportion

13.  Distance between the line passing
through the centre of pupils and
centre of lips and the distance
between the line passing through
the centre of lips to the chin
maintain golden proportion in
attractive faces
Eyes to mouth
and mouth to chin
distance are in golden
proportion

14.  The distance between
chin to nostrils and to
pupils also have
golden ratio .
 Inter pupillary axis to
top of ala of nose
(nose flair) to nostrils
level also have the
same proportion
Pupils to
nostrils to
chin have
golden ratio
Inter
pupillary
axis to nose
flair to
nostrils have
golden
ratio

15.  The distance between
the arc of the eye brow
to upper eye lid and
the distance between
upper and lower
eyelids also have
golden proportion.
 The beautician’s job of
designing eye bows is
thus justified .
 Centre of pupils to
nostrils to centre of
lips also have similar
proportion of 1.618:1 .
Arc of eye
brow
to upper eye
lid to
lower eyelid
has
golden
proportion
Eyes to nostril
and centre of
lips also
maintain
golden
proportion

16.  Upper and lower lips
maintain golden
proportion
 Similarly nostrils, top of
the upper lip and centre of
lips also maintain golden
ratio

17.  One side of the face
to inner canthus of
same side eye to
opposite side of face
and
 side of face to inner
canthus of same side
eye to inner canthus
of opposite side eye
also have golden
proportion.

18.  The following relations of
side of face and eye are also
in golden proportion:
 side of face to outer canthus
of eye to midline

19.  side of face to outer
canthus to inner
canthus of same side
eye
 Side of face,
termination of eye
brow and outer
canthus of eye
maintain golden ratio
in distance

20.  Midline, side of nose and
angle of mouth have a
distance in golden
proportion
In attractive faces nose tip, centre of the iris and arch of the eye
brow are in the same line. Side of the nose, outer canthus of the
eye and termination of the eyebrow are in the same line.
Side of the nose, inner canthus of eye and beginning of eye brow
are in the same plane

21.  To improve
beauty of face,
modifications are
made by the
beauticians in
these parameters.
 Angle of the
mouth on one
side to same side
of philtrum
(cupid’s bow) to
other side angle
of mouth
maintain golden
ratio of 1:1.618.

22.  Facial proportions will serve as an aid
in many prosthodontic procedures viz.
determination of vertical dimension in
completely edentulous individuals,
deciding
 soft tissue (lip) support, designing of
ocular and orbital prosthesis and
designing of nose and auricular
prosthesis.

23. Do these celebrities owe their
good looks to the Golden Ratio?
 White lines show golden ratio proportions from pupils to
nose tip to lip/teeth line to bottom of the chin
White lines show golden ratio
proportions from pupils to nose tip to
lip/teeth line to bottom of the chin

24.  White lines show golden ratio proportions from width
of face to the inside of the eyes

25. When a joke becomes science, then science becomes a
joke.
 A designer in Russia morphed several celebrity faces as
a joke, but it somehow morphed into “scientific
evidence” in yet another attempt to debunk the golden
ratio
 Igor Kochmala created some fun images of celebrity
faces that he morphed to fit nonsensical patterns of
golden ratio spirals

27. Compare the fit of celebrity faces
to the golden ratio
 This first gallery compares the fit of four of the celebrity
faces to the horizontal golden ratio proportions often
found in attractive faces. The most basic of these is found
in the distance between the pupils and bottom of the chin
in relation to the lip/teeth line and tip of the nose. Photos
need to be taken from directly in front of the face to do
this analysis

28.  This second gallery illustrates how these four celebrity faces
fit the vertical golden ratio proportions often found in
attractive faces. The most basic of these is found in the
position of the inside of the eyes in relation to the width of
the face (where the inside of the ears meet the face
 the position of the eyes of all four celebrities is an extremely
close fit to the golden ratio of the width of the face

29. The evidence speaks for itself.
 The golden ratio can of course be
found in the facial dimensions of
attractive women as well
Not every feature of a face need be in
golden ratio proportion to create
beauty, but its impact on our
perceptions of attractiveness is real.

30. Meisner Beauty Guide for Golden Ratio
Facial Analysis
 the most important features that
define a human face are the simplest
and most obvious: An oval head and
the positions and dimensions of the
eyes and the mouth. As evidence,
consider the “smiley face.” It
expresses a variety of facial
expressions with nothing more than
a circular head, two eyes and a
mouth line
 We immediately recognize this icon
as a face, but it clearly does not
represent the proportions of a
human face.

31.  Let’s instead express these
same facial markers with
normal human proportions,
and with the simplest
possible representation. This
requires a vertical oval, two
lines for the eyes and a line
for the mouth. The resulting
face will look something
more like this

32.  This simple facial configuration is easily mapped to very
natural human proportions with the use of four simple
golden ratio proportions

33.  The next important human facial feature is the
nose, most simply represented by two nostrils.
These too can be mapped to very natural human
proportions with golden ratio lines:
 The nostrils in relation to the pupils of the eyes
 The distance from the pupils to the nostrils to the
mouth line

34. The guide is based on 33 facial
markers
 Of these 33 markers, 28
are 14 sets of
symmetrical markers
that appear on both
sides of the face. Five
other markers are on
the vertical center line
of the face and define
proportions based on
horizontal measures.
 Most faces regarded as
beautiful or attractive
will have a significant
number of markers
whose proportions are
very close to the golden
ratio (as rounded to
1.618).

35. Why are golden ratios in the human face
often missed by researchers?
 A number of studies over the years have sought to determine
whether golden ratio proportions exist in human facial
features. Many have concluded that golden ratios do not
exist, or have only a very limited presence
As an example, one study by Italian researchers titled “The role of
the golden proportion in the evaluation of facial aesthetics”
captured over 30 facial markers using a very sophisticated imaging
technology called 3D stereophotogrammetry (see below left). Of
these, they used data on 14 facial markers for a study on
attractiveness, from which they calculated 10 facial ratios

36.  Note how different their markers and ratios are from those in
the Meisner Beauty Guide:
 Their study didn’t include the width of the face in its
measures, nor were the inside and outside positions of the
eyes included as markers.
 The study based half of its ratios on the hairline, which is a
weak marker. The hairline is one of the most highly variable
facial features by individual, and is also impacted by hair
styles or male pattern baldness.
 The researchers based two other ratios on a midpoint
between the eyebrows, which is certainly not as fundamental
to the definition of the face as the eyes, nose and mouth.
 They used the pupils of the eyes in only two vertical
measures.
 Rather than measure the very distinctive cupid’s bow of the
lips in relation to the width, they omitted this marker and
measured the ratio of half the width of the mouth to its
height.

37.  Their ten ratios thus did not include a single one of the
ratios of the Meisner Beauty Guide. When the Meisner
Beauty Guide markers are used, the face presented in their
study reveals clear golden ratio proportions, horizontally
and vertically

38.  The importance of facial width in attractiveness measures is
illustrated by the image below. The only facial marker changed
is the width of the face, and the impact on attractiveness is
significant.

39.  A 2009 study by US researchers titled “New “Golden” Ratios
for Facial Beauty” made a very simplistic and invalid
assumption that facial attractiveness can be reduced to one
horizontal facial ratio and one vertical ratio. They
announced these as the “new golden ratios” of facial
attractiveness and said that true golden ratio was nowhere
to be found

40.  Horizontally, the researchers properly identified the
pupils and face width as an important marker. The
ratio they calculated, however, ignored the inner and
outer positions of the eyes. As a result, they didn’t
realize that their “new” ratio was simply a
mathematical derivative of the eye width to face width
golden ratio included in the Meisner Beauty Guide. The
ideal face in fact embodied a number of golden ratio
proportions in both its horizontal and vertical
dimensions:

41.  There are clearly many dozens of places on a
human face that could be identified as a marker,
and hundreds of ratios that can be calculated
between these points.
 The availability of hundreds of facial ratios that
do not equal the golden ratio does not mean that
golden ratios do not exist.
 It just means that some of the most basic facial
markers and simplest ratios were not included in
their analysis.
 Many researchers apparently do not have simple
gauges or software that makes identification of
golden ratios easy

42. Every face is unique, and not all
fit the golden ratio.
 The one celebrity in the Kochmala’s blog who didn’t fit these golden
ratio proportions quite as well is Jack Nicholson. By applying the
same golden ratio grid, you can see that either his jaw is either
proportionately larger than the others, or, if holding the jaw line
constant,
 that his nose and mouth are somewhat higher on his face than those
of the others.
 The horizontal ratios from the width of the face show that the eyes
are positioned slightly closer to the center of the face
Horizontal ratio
based on lip line
Vertical ratio of
face width
Horizontal ratio based
on chin

43. Are Jack’s facial proportions somewhat unusual?
 One independent answer to that question can be found in
how caricature artists interpret his face. Caricatures
greatly exaggerate the unusual features of a face to
create a humorous, but still very recognizable,
impression of it. Look how these artists represent Jack

44.  Note how his jaw is shown as very
prominent. Note that the nose is shown
as being small and unusually close to the
eyes.
 This portrayal is consistent with the
variation we see in his face versus the
golden ratio proportions found in faces of
more “classic” attractiveness.
 A face certainly does not need to be in
perfect golden ratio proportion in every
dimension to be attractive, but the
greater the deviations the less likely it is
to be perceived by most people as being
attractive.
This is confirmed by the extensive research on facial beauty of Dr. Stephen
Marquardt, creator of the Marquardt Beauty Mask. Jack has some golden
ratios that factor into his attractiveness, despite some of his more atypical
facial dimensions

45. CONCLUSION
The Golden Ratio as the
simplest and most logical solution
 Our design as humans may be the result of
something of higher intelligence creating a
life form that is just a reflection of itself. On
the other hand, it may be the evolution of
individual cells uniting to create something
with far more intelligence than themselves.
 In either case, the golden ratio to be a more
logical and likely basis for facial
configurations than the use of dozens or
hundreds of other independent ratios to
create a face. Those in the academic
community often steer away from the golden
ratio because of their naturalist or humanistic
leanings, and its connotation as being part of
a “sacred geometry.”

46.  Its ability, however, to provide the
simplest mechanism and explanation
for facial dimensions should be
embraced, not ignored, if we want to
gain the best understanding of the
dynamics at work at the cellular level
in creating that wondrous face that
you see every day in the mirror

47. References
1.https://www.goldennumber.net/meisner-beautyguide-
golden-ratio-facial-analysis/
2.Alam MK, Mohd Noor NF, Basri R, Yew TF, Wen TH
(2015) Multiracial Facial Golden Ratio and Evaluation
of Facial Appearance. PLoS ONE 10(11): e0142914.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0142914
3. Jovana Milutinovic, Ksenija Zelic, and Nenad Nedeljkovic.
Evaluation of Facial Beauty Using Anthropometric
Proportions. The Scientific World Journal Volume
4.2014, Article ID 428250,
Livio M. The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, The World's Most Astonishing
Number. New York: Broadway
Books; 2002
5. Saraf S, Saraf P 2013 The Golden Proportion: Key To The Secret Of Beauty.
Internet J Plast Surg 9
(1).

48. Thank you