Factors Influencing Facial Shape

Abstract

The systematic reviews and meta‐analyses tend to focus on a particular anomaly or condition, making a comparison between interventions or controls. This chapter provides a brief overview of genetic and environmental factors that may contribute to the shape of the face, which may have an influence on the outcome of any intervention. Craniofacial genetic research has focused on significant craniofacial anomalies and it has only been in the last 10 years that there has been a drive to determine the biological basis of normal facial variation. The environment has an influence on facial shape and development. The clear environmental influences on face shape are trauma/surgery, infections, and burns, the other environmental influences will be a combination of environmental‐genetic interactions. The timing of puberty is the result of a combination of genetic and environmental factors incorporating metabolic factors. Principal component analysis (PCA) identifies a combination of key facial characteristics to explain robust variation in a population.