Consensus on Changing Trends, Attitudes, and Concepts of Asian Beauty

Steven Liew, Woffles T.L. Wu, Henry H. Chan, Wilson W.S. Ho, Hee Jin Kim, Greg J. Goodman, Peter H.L. Peng, John D. Rogers

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

88 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background: Asians increasingly seek non-surgical facial esthetic treatments, especially at younger ages. Published recommendations and clinical evidence mostly reference Western populations, but Asians differ from them in terms of attitudes to beauty, structural facial anatomy, and signs and rates of aging. A thorough knowledge of the key esthetic concerns and requirements for the Asian face is required to strategize appropriate facial esthetic treatments with botulinum toxin and hyaluronic acid (HA) fillers. Methods: The Asian Facial Aesthetics Expert Consensus Group met to develop consensus statements on concepts of facial beauty, key esthetic concerns, facial anatomy, and aging in Southeastern and Eastern Asians, as a prelude to developing consensus opinions on the cosmetic facial use of botulinum toxin and HA fillers in these populations. Results: Beautiful and esthetically attractive people of all races share similarities in appearance while retaining distinct ethnic features. Asians between the third and sixth decades age well compared with age-matched Caucasians. Younger Asians’ increasing requests for injectable treatments to improve facial shape and three-dimensionality often reflect a desire to correct underlying facial structural deficiencies or weaknesses that detract from ideals of facial beauty. Conclusions: Facial esthetic treatments in Asians are not aimed at Westernization, but rather the optimization of intrinsic Asian ethnic features, or correction of specific underlying structural features that are perceived as deficiencies. Thus, overall facial attractiveness is enhanced while retaining esthetic characteristics of Asian ethnicity. Because Asian patients age differently than Western patients, different management and treatment planning strategies are utilized. Level of Evidence V: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)193-201
Number of pages9
JournalAesthetic Plastic Surgery
Volume40
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016 Apr 1

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The consensus meeting was funded by an unrestricted educational grant from Allergan; however, the authors are solely responsible for the contents of this article. The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Kyle Seo, Dermatologist, Korea, for providing the photograph of the Korean woman in Fig. . Assistance with administration of the survey, survey data analysis, and editorial preparation of the manuscript was provided by Samantha Santangelo, PhD, of MediTech Media Asia Pacific.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, The Author(s).

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Surgery

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