Actually, this topic does raise one interesting idea though, can we really change from being average looking to good looking? For example, I've noticed that people with serious, serious flaws suddenly look much better if they are deformed. But can an average
person go from a 6 to a 9??
I would say it is possible, although significantly more difficult from a planning perspective. The surgical planning for faces that fall into the mild-severe deformity category tends toward the routine. All movements are large, and towards a very specific direction--that is, approximating symmetry and a normal profile. Aesthetic improvement occurs relatively easily in many of these cases, as approaching a normal aesthetic does more than just improve the patients appearance; in a very real sense, it restores some of the patients humanity. We often automatically--and tragically--see the deformed as almost less than human, especially patients who are candidates for major craniofacial reconstruction (Crouzon, Treacher Collins, severe Hemifacial microsomia, ect)
Surgical planning for enhancing a clinically normal face *can* be much more difficult. For one, enhancement is, in many respects, subjective, and the techniques used to achieve it all-the-more-so. It also depends on *why* a patients face is considered not as attractive as others. Is it that the are one or two easily addressed features (nose and ears, for instance) that are blemishing an otherwise model-like face? Or instead, is it that the patient's facial type/shape itself is--for whatever reasons-- considered less attractive, albeit normal, due to specific societal preferences? If it is the former, it is likely that objective, substantial improvement is possible; the latter, not so much.
A fascinating topic, for sure.
