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Reviewed July 13, 2026
What is mentolabial depth?
Mentolabial depth measures the soft-tissue groove between the lower lip and chin, also known as the labiomental fold or mentolabial sulcus. It sets how strongly the chin reads in profile. A balanced fold gives the chin a clean edge; a flat one washes the lower face out, a deep one signals a recessed lip or an over-prominent chin underneath.
How It's Measured
How is mentolabial depth measured?
Mentolabial depth is the perpendicular distance from the deepest point of the labiomental fold to a straight line connecting the lower-lip vermilion border with soft-tissue pogonion. The wider that gap, the deeper the fold reads in profile. The reading uses three soft-tissue landmarks:
- Sublabiale (Sm): the deepest point of the chin-to-lip groove on the soft tissue.
- Labrale inferius (Li): the vermilion border of the lower lip.
- Soft-tissue pogonion (Pg'): the most forward point of the chin pad.
What it tells you is whether the chin and lower lip sit in balance, or whether one is pushed out of place relative to the other (Naini, 2011).
Left: the canonical female profile with a shallow labiomental fold. Right: the same face with the chin-to-lip groove deepened, visibly sharpening the chin definition. Identity, hair, lighting, and framing held constant.
Why It Matters
Why does mentolabial depth matter?
The labiomental fold is the cleanest single read on whether the chin is balanced against the lower lip. A fold around 4 to 6 mm gives the chin pad a defined break from the lip and reads as a strong chin (Naini, 2011). Drop below 2 mm and the lip and chin merge into one undifferentiated mass. Push past 8 mm and the chin starts to look pinched off from the rest of the face.
Sex moves the normal value. Adult means sit near 6 mm in men against 4 mm in women, tracked back to the greater bony chin prominence in male skeletons. A 6 mm reading on a female profile reads masculine. A 3 mm reading on a male profile reads under-defined. The most common diagnostic mistake is treating one number as the ideal across both sexes.
The mentolabial fold also moves as a side effect of every chin and lower-jaw procedure. Sagittal advancement of the chin sharpens it, vertical lengthening flattens it, mandibular advancement can exaggerate it. Surgeons therefore use the morphology as a diagnostic anchor before deciding between genioplasty, filler, or mandibular surgery (Stella and Naini, 2019). The ranges below give the typical norms by sex.
4–8 mm
Men
2–6 mm
Women
2–8 mm
Typical Range
These values vary depending on individual facial structure and background.
Demographic Variants
Ideal Mentolabial Depth by Demographic
Mentolabial depth varies by sex. The rows below summarise the lit-supported norms.
Demographic | Ideal range | Source |
|---|---|---|
Adult women | 4 ± 2 mm (typical ~4 mm) | |
Adult men | 4 ± 2 mm (typical ~6 mm) |
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Your Questions
Frequently asked questions
Adults sit around 4 ± 2 mm, with the mentolabial fold slightly deeper in men (around 6 mm) than in women (around 4 mm) because the male chin pad is more prominent (Naini, 2011). Readings between 2 and 8 mm fall within the typical aesthetic range. Outside that band the fold reads either flat or excessively deep.
A deep mentolabial fold usually signals mandibular retrusion (a Class II skeletal pattern), an everted lower lip, or a short lower anterior face height with mandibular overclosure (Naini, 2011). In each case the lower lip sits behind a more prominent chin, which exaggerates the labiomental groove.
There are three common routes. Hyaluronic acid filler can camouflage the labiomental depression and is reversible if you do not like the result. Advancement genioplasty brings the chin forward to even out the groove. Orthognathic mandibular advancement corrects the underlying skeletal class when the deformity sits at the bone level (Stella and Naini, 2019).
Yes. Soft-tissue descent in the lower face, lower-lip volume loss, and chin pad ptosis all combine to deepen the labiomental groove with age (Goldberg et al., 2008). The same patients usually see a deeper nasolabial fold and downturned oral commissures at the same time.