The role of physical anthropology in plastic surgery today.

The techniques of physical anthropology, which offer plastic surgeons additional parameters for studying the human face and body, have not been utilized to any major extent by members of our specialty. As an example of a specific ethnic anomaly, the author suggests a greater incidence of protruding ears among Irish and Irish-American children with the possible coexistence of a hearing impairment in any child with a protruding ear. In describing the anatomic characteristics of the nose, he stresses the need for a better evaluation of the esthetic and anthropologic balance of facial features in the correction of the overall shape and contours of a nose.