What are Dimples

What do Cheryl Cole, Lauren London and Preity Zinta have in common? Apart from the being gorgeous, they flaunt beautiful cheek dimples which are to-die-for! Having dimples on one or both the cheeks is a common phenomenon and there is hardly anyone who has never ever seen dimples. Let us accept it, that cheek dimples add to the beauty of the smile and the overall face and hence, are considered as one of the assets for people (mostly women). But, what causes facial dimples? Let us take a look.

Facial Dimples

One may say that dimples are spots that appear on the cheeks when one smiles, talks, laughs, etc. Dimples are visible dents/clefts on one or both the cheeks on the face of a person. Cheek dimples can be light (appearing only on smiling or laughing) or deep (appearing even while talking). Although in most of the cases, both dimples are light or deep; sometimes, one may come across a case (or a face) where the dimple on one cheek is lighter, while the other is deeper. However, this is a rare case. Due to its attractive visual appearance, dimples always tend to attract attention.

How Are Dimples Formed

You may be wonder-struck to note that dimples are actually caused due to malformation in the cheek muscles. The facial muscle known as zygomaticus major is responsible for causing cheek dimples in people. If you wish to know why do people have facial dimples, then note that in case of these people, the zygomaticus major is shorter in size and hence, gets pulled on the skin. This leads to an indentation on the facial skin, which is termed as a dimple. The double or bifid zygomaticus major muscle leads to formation of cheek dimples. Sometimes, it may also happen that the dimples, prominent in childhood, may vanish or become lighter in adulthood.

Genetics is also believed to be one of the causes of dimples in men and women. Children born to parents with dimples have more than 50% chances of having dimples. If either of the parent has dimples then, either of the children (male and female) may have dimples. However, this is not a foolproof rule; as it has also been found that even children, whose parents did not have dimples, were born with dimples. It should be noted that the trait of dimples can skip a generation and may be seen in the next generation. For e.g., a grandfather and his grandson may have dimples (skipping the middle generation).

Nowadays there are several techniques that help in creating dimples artificially on cheeks. Doctors and researchers have found that there has been a considerable rise in people going for artificial dimples with the help of cosmetic surgery. It is a simple procedure with no known side effects, which definitely helps you gain a new attractive look. However, it is not an alternative to natural beauty!

I guess you must be amused with this information on formation of dimples. The mystery of dimples solved, you might as well flaunt them more by smiling and spreading happiness! Good luck!