The physical attractiveness of facially deformed patients before and after craniofacial surgery

The present experiment investigated whether the physical attractiveness of craniofacially deformed children and adolescents could be improved by surgical procedures. Twenty patients between the ages of 5 months and 17 years were randomly selected from patient files. Patient diagnoses included facial clefts, hypertelorism, Treacher Collins syndrome, and craniofacial dysostosis (Crouzon's and Apert's syndromes). Rigorously standardized photographs of patients taken before and after surgery were shown to 40 "naive" raters ranging in age from 17 to 52 years. Raters analyzed the photographs with regard to global physical attractiveness. These ratings indicated that the patients' physical attractiveness was reliably (62 percent) improved following surgery. The results are discussed in light of recent evidence that untreated craniofacial patients may be at risk for psychosocial disorders and in terms of the growing evidence of the importance of physical appearance for the development of cognitive and social-emotional competence. In addition, a standardized assessment system is described that can be used to facilitate the compilation of actuarial data predicting surgical outcomes. Finally, the importance of empirically evaluating the effectiveness of surgical procedures and practitioners on a continuing basis is emphasized.