Modiolus is convergence of the facial muscles at the angle of the mouth, and its shape and size varying with individual, age, sex and ethnicity. In the previous study, the modiolus was usually located under the horizontal line at the mouth angle. In most medical schools, the cadavers are of later ages and their facial muscles have lost their elasticity as they got older. The purpose of this study is to identify the location of the modiolus in live young Korean and to compare it with that of Korean cadavers from the previous study.
Participants were one hundred students of the catholic medical school with a mean age of 24 years. Experimenter palpated the modiolus of each student with thumb and index finger.
The average young live Korean modiolus was located at 14.4 mm lateral to mouth angle and 1.6 mm below the horizontal line of the mouth angle. Commonly, it is located below the mouth angle in 124 sides (62%). There was difference between horizontal distance of female and of male, and vertical distance of right and of left. The location of the modiouls was symmetric in 67%. These results were consistent with the previous study using Korean cadavers. Therefore these results suggest that the location of the modiolus is below to the mouth angle in large number of Koreans.