The "beauty arch: " a new aesthetic analysis for malar augmentation planning

Midface is a critical area for the aesthetics of the face. Despite malar hypoplasia is often combined with a class III malocclusion, there are few studies focusing on the results of a combined approach of malar implants and Le Fort I. We describe a new aesthetic analysis, named "beauty arch" analysis, for the assessment of sagittal projection of the malar region. We took a reference group of 74 Italian women participating in a national beauty contest in 2011 on which we performed our analysis. We used the ideal values to elaborate the surgical treatment planning of a second group of 45 consecutive female patients affected by skeletal class III malocclusion.Twenty-three patients undergo simultaneous Le Fort I osteotomy and malar implants. From the descriptive statistical comparison of the patients' values before and after orthognathic surgery and malar implants with the reference values, we observed how all parameters considered got closer to the ideal population. We consider our beauty arch a useful help for surgeon in the treatment planning of patients with skeletal malocclusions and malar implants.