Esthetic Characteristics of Female Caucasian Beauty Pageant Winners

Obtaining facial attractiveness is an important consideration in orthodontic treatment. We studied whether contemporary judgments of attractive mature Caucasian female faces agree with the facial norms proposed by Arnett, Bergman, Powell, Humphreys and Legan. Twenty-seven current beauty pageant winners age 20 to 47 were photographed. Profile, frontal and smiling photos were obtained and composite images were generated. Statistical tests indicated that 8 out of 13 variables in the study showed significant differences from published adult norms. Significantly the composite beauty pageant queens have a decreased lower facial height, retrusive upper lip, increased interlabial gap, retrusive forehead and more nose projection. These findings demonstrate subtle contributions of several facial components to an attractive face. Most importantly, this study presents facial esthetic guidelines to improve orthodontic and orthognathic diagnosis and treatment planning.