Medical Student Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine
We retrospectively found patients who underwent bilateral brow lift for visual field obstruction, and compiled 116 photographs, with repose images taken. Each pre-operative and post-operative photograph included a black box face mask created using Adobe Photoshop 2021. The photos were analyzed using artificial intelligence software trained for the recognition of specific properties in facial images. Facial expressions, action units and age before and after wearing face masks were compared. Postoperatively, patients were perceived as being happier than preoperatively, more surprised, as well as less sad, less angry and less disgusted. Comparing the same photographs while covering the face with a mask, the postoperative photographs were perceived as being more neutral, less sad, and less disgusted than preoperatively. No differences were detected for the rest of the emotions. Wearing masks decreased the age perception in both preoperative [15 years (15-20) vs 45 years (35-55), p<0.0001] and postoperative groups [15 years (15-20) vs 45 years (35-50), p<0.0001]. However, there was no difference in age perception for unmasked patients before and after surgery. This study proposes a paradigm shift in the clinical evaluation of brow lift and facial aesthetic surgery, implementing an existing facial emotion recognition system to quantify changes in expression associated with facial surgery. Browlift decreases facial action units associated in increased happier emotions, including outer brow lowerer, decreased sadness expressions. Mask wearing eliminates input from the perioral action units altering emotional recognition.