Dr. Kang’s Interview with New Beauty About The Essence of Facial Balancing

What is facial balancing and why is it such an important topic right now?  Facial balancing is all about harmony and proportion to your face which is the foundation to an elegant face.  It is an important topic because so many real celebrities and even shows that high light celebrity wannabes and their over-the-top opulent live styles often create characters with excess fillers and fat injection to their face and lips and overdone Botox to their forehead and brows, often looking like what we call in the industry “marshmallow” faces.  We as board certified professionals in the field of cosmetic enhancement need to get back to the basics and foremost advise,  emphasize and offer elegant facial balancing to all of our patients…

How can a well-balanced face be the differentiating factor between a face that looks good and great?  This is a tough question mainly because I don’t agree with it.. A well balanced face is “always” a good looking face because no matter how wide or narrow, plump or gaunt, you can optimize the balance of the eyes, nose, lips, and chin to fit the inherent foundation of the face.  But a great looking face has to have “balance” plus a genetically endowed “bony foundation”.  Conversely so many patients with beautiful and elegant bony foundation mess up their face with too much fillers & Botox and unwarranted prematurely early lifting surgeries.

Who is a good candidate for a facial balancing procedure?  “Everyone” is a candidate for facial balancing procedure!  We all know in the 25 and younger age group, a little reduction of large nose hump or bulbous nose tip can completely transform a face to a more balanced face.  In patients with Asian decent, creation of double eyelid completely wakes up the eye bringing about more balance.. in those with nose a bit too small making their face proportionally too big, will immediately bring about more balance and harmony with 5 minute “filler nose job” with option for formal nasal augmentation surgery at a later date.   For those 25 to 30 and older, no matter how beautiful and balanced their face might have been…aging changes inevitably sets in either through gravity effects or deflation through loss of soft tissue and fat…. This is where your board certified provider needs to shine…and be able to make accurate analysis of your aging pattern and come up with a formula bespoke to your needs to keep you looking as young and elegant and balanced as possible.  But caveat is through means of using the least invasive techniques available so that your facial balance looks as natural as possible without looking over-done… Another words a naturally balanced looking face can look great but not “unnaturally” balanced looking face often from too much surgeries as epitomized by likes of Michael Jackson or some of the Hollywood or K-pop stars.. Finally I cannot overemphasize seeking a board certified surgeon who has decades of training in the inner workings of the anatomy and who has devoted a chunk of their career understanding the inevitable aging changes and has the versatility to perform both “open” surgeries as well as the latest state of art “closed” surgeries using the latest minimally invasive tools and techniques.

If a patient does everything to prevent the signs of aging and reverse the hands of time but doesn’t pay attention to facial balancing, how can that impede their overall look?  This is simply wrong supposition..  truth be told we all look much more in balance when we are younger due to our soft tissue cloaking all of our bony asymmetry & disharmony.. another words, it’s impossible to try looking younger and reverse the hands of time without addressing balance from the beginning… at least in my practice…

What role do rations and symmetry play in a well-balanced face?  Excellent question and I have already answered in question 4… we all have asymmetry between left and right side which simply follow genetical trait of our parents.. even nose and chin is half left and half right and by definition all asymmetrical.. some patients already are aware while many need to be informed of this fact… as we age, as I alluded to earlier we lose our soft tissue cushion cloaking(hiding) the inherent bony asymmetry plus gravity worsens our inherent asymmetry as laxity of our soft tissue drape differentially from left vs right bony foundation of our face. As result we all lose the inherent balance and optical symmetry of our youthful days… A smart surgeon who truly understand how to wind the hands of time will gently & naturally replace the lost volume to better cloak the inherent asymmetry of bone and gently tuck up laxity of the face  using well vetted techniques.

Which facial features are most likely to be off balance? and why does this happen?  As I mentioned in question 3, in patients with Asian decent who naturally have wide & flatter face unfortunately tend to have nose & eyes proportionally too small which makes their face optically even more wide and broad.. Through creation of double eyelid crease alone, or along with nasal augmentation using filler or surgery,  can bring about much greater balance and harmony to their face…. Conversely in Caucasians with small narrow face with big nose with dominant hump, conservative reduction rhinoplasty can bring about much greater balance and harmony to their face.. so to answer your question,  it will be nose & eyes for younger patients.. For older patients, it’s usually addressing the lack of adequate chin which can create amazing transformation as far as  bringing greater balance to the face.. Another words, dainty small chin might have been just fine till about 30, but as gravity and laxity takes over, small chin will optically accentuate the laxity, jowling and poor definition along jawline…. As well as highlight the obtuseness of the sub mental angle (sub chin and neck area).

What are the best ways to balance the eyes? cheeks? chin? nose? temples? eyebrows?  The best way to balance 1. Eyes (surgery) 2. Cheeks (filler, fat, surgery) 3. chin (filler, fat, surgery) 4. Nose (filler, fat, surgery) 5. Temples (filler, fat, surgery) 6. Eyebrows (thread, surgery)

Why is the chin often considered the central feature of a well-balanced face?  The chin is absolutely central feature of well-balanced face as alluded to earlier… I have always referred to chin as the base to a beautiful vase… no matter now beautiful the vase, the base provides stability and strength to the foundation of the vase.. in the face, a beautiful well balanced face always has harmony between nose & chin, lips and chin, cheeks and chin and the universal triangle or V-shape which can be seen by drawing a line in these three structures.. However a “perfect” chin should never stand out  but rather be “behinds the scene” feature of the face which plays the essential role of flattering all others parts of the face…