Evaluation of facial skeletal aesthetics and surgical planning

Proper surgical planning for aesthetic facial skeletal surgery requires of the surgeon not only intimate knowledge of available techniques but also an understanding of how and when to apply those techniques. To this end, proper facial form analysis is essential. In this introduction we have attempted to describe the elements of such an analysis, realizing that much remains to be learned about how the bone and soft tissue interact. In many ways the soft tissue--bone relations remain the unexplored area in aesthetic skeletal surgery. The further delineation of these relations by the use of anthropometry, laser light scanning, ultrasound, CT, and MRI remains an open area for investigation. The potential is enormous for using these data to study how bone and soft-tissue relationships combine to create facial form and how this form changes with both surgery and normal aging.