Beauty by Phi: A fixed point

There is an objective reason about why we perceive some people or things to be attractive in this world. That reason is the proportion or ratio of Phi.

“That is, there is a mathematical formula which underlies people with so called ‘beautiful faces,’” says Morris E. Hartstein, M.D., F.A.C.S., director of ophthalmic plastic surgery at the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, Tel Aviv University School of Medicine, Zerifin, Israel.

Dr. Harstein presented, “Phi, Fat and the Mathematics of a Beautiful Face,” yesterday at the 11th annual Vegas Cosmetic Surgery and Aesthetic Dermatology multispecialty aesthetic symposium in Las Vegas.

While this golden ratio has long been used by artists and architects and dates back to the Ancient Egyptians and Greeks, the concept of creating pleasing facial proportions in cosmetic surgery was pioneered in recent years by Canadian plastic surgeon Arthur Swift, M.D., C.M., F.R.C.S. His approach is called Beautiphication, which is an injection facial procedure that follows Leonardo Da Vinci’s mathematical principle of beauty and harmony through “divine” proportion. Dr. Swift conducted a review outlining objective parameters needed to create a template to maximize individual patient’s facial beauty.

“There are many proportions and measurement points for the midface,” Dr. Hartstein says. “However, the Phi point is fixed and does not change with age. It was also discovered by Dr. Swift by working backwards from photos of several hundred top models.”

According to Dr. Hartstein, physicians can use the information to guide them in facial rejuvenation surgery or non-surgical injections.

“We took Dr. Swift’s concepts and applied them to lower blepharoplasty surgery combined with fat injections to the Phi point,” he says. “By utilizing these concepts in lower blepharoplasty surgery with fat transfer, we were able to blend the lid-cheek junction and create beautiful cheeks.”