Aesthetic Principles

The perception of beauty impacts our daily lives, such that the pursuit of beauty is often the pursuit of an improved quality of life. Although there are guidelines for facial proportions, there is no set beauty ideal in the modern day. Aesthetic surgeons should be familiar with facial proportions and should be able to modify these with respect to cultural and ethnic variations. To achieve imperceptible scarring, aesthetic surgeons should be able to control tissue tension, properly orient incisions, appreciate anatomical subunits, and avoid distortion of surrounding structures. Aesthetic surgery, when performed with craftsmanship, can achieve a long-lasting and harmonious result.  This review contains 10 figures, and 26 references. Keywords: defining beauty, facial aesthetic proportions, facial subunits, scarring, resting skin tension lines, evolution of facelift, SMAS, facial aging