A Proposed Method for Measuring the Aesthetic Outcome of Head Surgery

Abstract

Objective quantification of facial asymmetry is important for evaluating postoperative aesthetic outcomes in head and neck surgery. This paper presents a semi-automatic, low-cost framework for three-dimensional facial symmetry analysis based on consumer-grade 3D facial scanning. The proposed workflow consists of facial model preprocessing and normalization, anatomical landmark-based mid-plane construction, and quantitative symmetry assessment. Both global facial symmetry and local symmetry within a surgically affected Region of Interest (ROI) are evaluated, enabling targeted analysis of surgery-related contour changes. The framework was designed as an accessible alternative to specialized 3D scanning systems and commercial post-processing solutions. Three-dimensional facial scans were acquired using an iPhone 16 Pro Max under standardized conditions. The method was preliminarily evaluated on a pilot dataset comprising four parotidectomy patients and one control subject. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach is capable of detecting and quantifying localized asymmetry associated with surgical intervention, even when using low-cost acquisition devices and low-quality scans. Although the present study is limited by the small sample size, the findings support the feasibility of consumer-grade 3D facial scanning for objective postoperative symmetry assessment and provide a foundation for future validation on larger and more diverse patient cohorts.