Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
This edition’s cover is rather unusual for an Orthodontic journal, isn’t it?
Following a recent lecture in Spain, I was invited to visit a famous art gallery, where I became absolutely fascinated by the uniqueness of the great Spanish artist Luis Bolumar, whose work is featured on the cover. The first things that attracted me were the unconventional eye shape and “Avatar” skin color, and also that the artist had quite unusually painted teeth, with a very fine smile arc.
Accompanied by a fellow professional, Dr. Fernando, our conversation soon turned to dentistry and I remarked that the lips were too protrusive, but could be easily remedied by extracting 4 bicuspids, in order to retract the front teeth and to reposition the lips. “No, no, no, no!” replied my Spanish friend. “We love sexy lips!” This was not the first time I have heard Caucasian doctors talking about sexy lips and this has always had me slightly confused.
I also met the famous speaker Dr. Ramon in Spain, who had recently been invited to speak about lip profile in Shanghai. Prior to his lecture he visited a night market and noticed many thick protrusive lips (in need of 4 bicuspid extractions) and he realised that none of his case reports actually covered this and was concerned that his topic would not be appropriate for oriental doctors and their patients. Obviously different races have different profiles and esthetics.
Both these stories have given me a deeper understanding of cultural and physical differences and the need to think about how different people perceive these. It’s very subjective!
Most of the cases presented in IJOI are Asian patients being treated by Asian doctors, based on Asian esthetics. Most orthodontic literature is based on Caucasian cases, so as the publisher, I sincerely hope that IJOI can add to the orthodontic database and help bridge this cultural divide and allow a better understanding for all cultures.
I hope that readers of and contributors to IJOI can relate to this and join us as we continue on our path to glory.
Chris Chang DDS, PhD, Publisher of IJOI.