Harmony · Side view · Lips
Holdaway H Line
The lower lip’s distance from the line joining the upper lip and soft-tissue chin.
What is measured
The calculation
Signed perpendicular lower-lip distance to the upper-lip–pogonion line × photo scale
Side view / Measurement guide
Follow the measurement
Select a label to focus on its line. Select again to show all measurements.
In these guides, nasion means the nasal root, subnasale the nose base, and pogonion the most forward chin point. Frankfort refers to the direction from the ear-opening landmark to the lower orbital landmark.
Why it matters
The H-line compares the two lips with the chin while excluding the nose. It complements the E-line when a prominent or small nose strongly influences the other reference.
- Negative in FaceIQ: the lower lip is in front of the H-line.
- Positive in FaceIQ: the lower lip is behind the H-line.
Where the idea comes from
Clinical reference
Holdaway’s soft-tissue analysis uses a line tangent to the upper lip and soft-tissue chin. FaceIQ reports lower-lip distance to that line, not the separate H-angle. [1] [2]
A worked example
A lower lip 1 estimated mm behind the upper-lip–chin line reads +1 mm. Shifting the upper lip changes the line as well.
Example values explain the calculation. They are not a target range and are not measurements of the schematic above.
Research & further reading
The sources below explain the history or related evidence. FaceIQ’s score weights and reference ranges are model settings; these papers do not collectively validate the scoring system.
[1] Holdaway · 1983
A soft-tissue cephalometric analysis and its use in orthodontic treatment planning. Part IA historical clinical framework for describing soft-tissue profile relationships, including the H-line. A clinical reference is different from a photographic attractiveness test.
[2] Buschang, Fretty & Campbell · 2011
Can commonly used profile planes be used to evaluate changes in lower lip position?Compared five lip reference lines, including Steiner’s S-line, in 79 orthodontic patients. Moving reference points can make a lip appear to move backward even when it moves forward.