Validation of a Method for Estimation of Facial Age by Plastic Surgeons.

[IMPORTANCE] Within cosmetic facial plastic surgery, there is considerable difficulty in producing high-quality scientific publications because of the lack of scientific tools that serve to transform sensations, such as more beautiful or rejuvenated, into numbers capable of being used in statistical analysis.

[OBJECTIVE] To validate an objective evaluation method that can be used to define the perception of facial age in scientific studies.

[DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS] This is a cross-sectional, observational study of evaluation by plastic surgeons of 70 photographs of patients from a private care hospital performed from March 1, 2015, through April 30, 2016. When evaluating the photographs, 7 plastic surgeons wrote down the perceived age of each patient. The photographs of each patient were randomly presented twice to each evaluator (photograph 1 and photograph 2) and analyzed singly using a trimmed mean. Three evaluators were randomly chosen for further statistical analysis in an attempt to make the assessment technique more practical.

[EXPOSURES] Usual aging process.

[MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES] Estimated mean age and chronological age.

[RESULTS] Photographs of 70 patients were evaluated (mean [SD] age, 41.5 [13.8] years; 48 women [68.6%]; and mean [SD] body mass index, 22.5 [2.7]). No significant differences were observed between photographs 1 and 2 for any of the evaluators. A significant difference in the mean ages was not observed when comparing evaluators. For photograph 1 (evaluated by only 3 evaluators), the difference was 0.16 years (P = .52). For photograph 2, the difference was 0.05 years (P = .86). The difference between the mean perceived age for the 3 evaluators and the chronological age was only 0.8 years (<10 months).

[CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE] The intraevaluator and interevaluator agreement suggests that 3 plastic surgeons can estimate the age of a person with a margin of error of 10 months by analyzing a photograph. This article is important to facial plastic surgeons because it reveals how the results of rejuvenation procedures can be assessed.

[LEVEL OF EVIDENCE] NA.