Your jawline can make or break your facial appearance. Therefore, it is vital to learn about the gonial angle and how it can affect your look.
The gonial angle is the angle of your mandible, formed by the junction of your lower jaw’s posterior and lower borders. The ideal gonial angle for men is 130 degrees, and women’s should be less. You can enhance your gonial angle with mewing, dermal fillers, etc. To decrease it, you can get jaw surgery.
The gonial angle consists of the intersection between the ramus and the body of the mandible. The ramus is an oft-ignored aspect of facial aesthetics.
Consider one of our custom facial reports if you’re interested in an in-depth analysis of your jaw area.
The Gonial Angle
The gonial angle is the angle of your lower jaw. To get a better idea of what the gonial angle looks like, refer to the photo below. It is at the line that starts at the bottom of your ear and goes down to your chin via a triangular shape.
What Is the Ideal Gonial Angle?
The ideal gonial angle for men is 130 degrees. It can vary from 100-148 degrees (Jensen et al., 1954), but the ideal is 130 degrees.
For women, it should be less, ranging from 120-125 degrees. If the angle is a few degrees less or more, it would still look good. In every race, the average female gonial angle is 3-5 degrees larger than in males.
Angelina Jolie’s angle is 123 degrees. She has a squarer jaw shape, but she is still a beautiful woman.
What If I Do Not Have the Ideal Gonial Angle?
The gonial angle is crucial to facial aesthetics because your lower jaw makes up the lower half of your face. If your gonial angle is off the ideal by a few degrees, it may not be a big deal.
However, an extraordinarily high or vertical angle can be a distraction. For instance, a 148-degree angle can make you look like you have a long face. A long face often has other features like a weak chin, recessed maxilla, non-existent jawline, etc.
On the other hand, a 100-degree angle would also not be ideal. The jaw shape would be too square, creating a box-like head shape.
Most people, particularly men, look better with a well-defined jaw, which usually means you have an ideal gonial angle. A well-developed lower jaw is a masculine trait and creates the “jawline effect.”
For men, their jaws should ideally be broad and square. Some men can look good with rounder jaws, but they are often not as photogenic as men with squarer, broader jaws. As for women, thinner and rounder jaws can look great.
However, Angelina Jolie has a squarer jaw, which still looks great because she has other feminine features. Jake Gyllenhall has an oval face shape with rounder features, but his other masculine features make it work.
How Can I Improve My Gonial Angle?
You can improve your gonial angle by mewing. You can also enhance it by getting jaw fillers, jaw implants, or jaw surgery.
What you should do will depend on what you want and just how bad yours is. Ideally, it would be best to speak to a plastic surgeon to help you make the best decision.
Mewing
Mewing can help you enhance your gonial angle provided you’re young enough. If you start mewing when you’re a kid, mewing is an excellent way to make your jaw more parallel to the floor. As seen in the above photo, the jaw was originally downswung but got more prominent.
Mewing pushes your neck muscles on your mandible, enhancing your gonial angle. Many people with long faces can decrease the length of their faces with the correct posture and techniques from mewing.
People can see improvements in their lower jaw area with consistent mewing. It may take you at least six months to a few years to see visible results, and the results will last. However, if you’re an adult, don’t count on mewing to change your gonial angle unless you’re at it for years or decades. If you’re an adult, you can mew if your gonial angle is close to normal and you’re mostly happy with it anyway. Otherwise, you need surgery.
Since mewing moves and molds your face’s bones, it is worth the effort and time. Plus, mewing becomes second nature once you get used to it.
To learn more about mewing, see our guide.
However, mewing is the most useful for enhancing the gonial angle if you incorporate chewing. Dedicated chewing, like chewing gum regularly, can help you strengthen your masseter muscles, creating a stronger jawline. Even as an adult, chewing will enlarge your masseter muscles, giving you the appearance of an improved gonial angle.
Many people have weak jaws because of their current diets. Our diets are mostly full of soft, processed food that requires minimal chewing. We rarely use our jaws and masseter muscles to chew, leading to weak gonial angles and receding chins.
Therefore, it would be ideal to mew and regularly chew to create a more prominent jawline. However, we cannot easily adopt the same diet that our ancestors had. Thankfully, you can chew gum to get the same effect. Regularly chewing gum can help you make your masseter muscles larger and help enhance your jaw as you mew.
Ideally, you should chew sugar-free gum like mastic gum. You can chew for 10-15 minutes a day and take breaks. Remember to not strain your jaw; once you feel tired, it is time to take a break.
To learn more about how chewing gum can improve your jawline, click here.
Additionally, people who do the opposite of mewing (poor tongue posture, open mouths, hanging jaws, etc.) often have long faces with poor gonial angles. It is often also a result of mouth breathing.
The process of facial recession and craniofacial dystrophy
Mouth breathers usually let their mouths hang slightly open as their tongue rests on their mandible. Additionally, they breathe using their mouths instead of their nose.
Prolonged mouth breathing lengthens your face and weakens your jaw. Thankfully, mewing can help you correct that.
Jaw Fillers
A jaw filler can add volume to your jawline, helping you achieve the ideal gonial angle. This option is suitable for people who have an angle that is less than 125-130 degrees.
Jaw fillers are injectable gel-like material that a surgeon strategically injects into your jawline. Most fillers are natural materials that are already present in your body, like hyaluronic acid and collagen.
However, the results will fade over time because people’s bodies will absorb the material. Most people’s dermal fillers last for 6-12 months, but it depends on how fast or slow your body metabolizes it. Therefore, you would need to get them again if you want to keep your look.
The other main downside of jaw fillers is that they don’t hold their shape well and aren’t great for making sharp angles. Even if your fillers look good after injection, they will smush. Actual implants are what you want for your jaw.
Jaw Implants
If you want to get a more prominent jawline to enhance your gonial angle, you can also opt for jaw implants. Jaw implants can augment your jawline’s ramus, angle, and body, improving your facial symmetry and gonial angle.
To do the procedure, a surgeon will create incisions around your jawline, typically inside your mouth. The surgeon will place the implants in the desired areas of your jaw. Most implants consist of medical-grade silicone that your surgeon creates specifically for you.
Once your surgeon puts the implants in the right place, they will use sutures or stitches to close the incisions. The surgery usually only takes one hour.
Recovery time can vary, but most people make a full recovery after a few weeks to one month. While recovery time can take longer, the results often last for a long time and may not need follow-up procedures.
Jaw Surgery
Jaw surgery can be an option if you want to decrease your gonial angle. Additionally, jaw surgery may be a better option for some people. In some cases, jaw implants only camouflage your problems instead of fixing them, creating subpar results.
The kind of jaw surgery you need will depend on your needs. Ideally, you should consult a plastic surgeon to know what operation you will need.
For instance, double jaw surgery addresses issues of both the mandible and maxilla. If your jawline is too square, you may get jawline reduction surgery.
In some cases, you may also need genioplasty to augment your chin. It will help make sure your new jawline will suit the rest of your face.
Check out our article for more info on enhancing the jaw.
