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Korean Versus North American Facial Beauty Standards

How do two different cultures view facial features when it comes to beauty? Here’s an interesting blog by a Canadian husband and wife team (living in Korea) who make some insightful observations on how Koreans view facial beauty. In particular, they comment on the fact that native Koreans prefer a V-Line face, with narrow jaws and smaller cheekbones. They even sell facial rollers to narrow your face. 

While reading this post and watching this video, I couldn’t help but to think about the airway implications with narrow jaws—the more narrow your face, the less room there is for your tongue, and the more likely you’ll have breathing problems when sleeping. There are reports of plastic surgeons performing jaw-line narrowing procedures, such as masseter muscle or jaw reduction, and even using botox to shrink the masseter muscles. There’s also a recent trend to perform maxillo-mandibular advancement procedures purely for cosmetic reasons. This procedure will actually enlarge your airways, if done properly.

Even in the United States, people’s preferences for facial beauty may be changing, with more popular celebrities having narrower faces and jawlines.

It’s surprising how far some people will go to improve their facial appearance, at the cost (unknowingly) of diminished sleep quality and accelerated aging.

What’s your perception of facial beauty? Do you prefer a round face with wide jaws, or a narrow, triangular face?

Expert Interview: Dr. Derek Mahony on Nasal Airway, Snoring/OSA & Malocclusion in Children

On this Expert Interview program, Dr. Derek Mahony, a world renowned orthodontist  from Australia, gives a special talk on:

Nasal Airway, Snoring/OSA & Malocclusion in Children

Please fill in the form below to receive the MP3 recording and PDF of the slides for free:

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An Embarrassing Admission

I was flipping through the channels this past weekend and just happened to land on PBS, where they were doing a special on the Lawrence Welk Show. I have to admit that I used to watch this show in the 70s, and still to this day, if I ever stumble upon this show, I’ll watch it for the great big band music and singing.

I initially began watching to listen to the music, but as I observed the singers, I was truly impressed by their wide jaws and fully developed cheek bones. If you look at younger adults these days, you’ll see how narrow their facial structures are, with many having underdeveloped lower jaws. It’s a frightening thought that this situation is now pandemic throughout the modern Western world. What this means is that having smaller jaws can lead to smaller breathing passageways, leading to less efficient sleep, with all the various medical, psychological, and emotional consequences of not ever being able to obtain deep, quality sleep.

How many of you observe people’s faces and analyze their jaw structures?

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