Finding the balance in treatment for patients with rare facial clefts

Abstract

The face is of major importance as we communicate and can usually not be ignored. A small infant learns using the face of his mother to read how he is doing, as it refl ects its wellbeing. Later on, when the way of communicating improves, facial expressions and mimics lead to social reactions and interactions. Because of the strong relation between the face and its function in social encounters and communication, fascination has always existed on the appearance of the face and the presence of specifi c traits and even psychiatric or criminal constitutions. This fi eld of study has been called physiognomy and was already practised in the fi rst Babylonian Dynasty, and afterwards popularised by Aristotle and especially by Della Porta, Browne and Lavatar