Is facial balancing the same as orofacial harmonisation?

They describe the same planning, under two names that grew in different markets. Orofacial harmonisation is the Brazilian term and, since 2019, a titled dental specialty in Brazil. Facial balancing is the term patients use in English speaking markets, where no equivalent titled specialty exists.

Can a dentist perform this treatment?

In Brazil, yes, and the scope is defined by the Federal Council of Dentistry, which recognised orofacial harmonisation as a dental specialty under Resolution 198/2019. Outside Brazil the answer is not ours to give. In the United States scope of practice is set state by state, by each state dental board, and in the United Kingdom it follows the scope of practice published by the General Dental Council, so a reader there should check their own regulator rather than take a Brazilian page as the source. What we can say about Brazil is narrower and checkable: here the work carries a titled name, and the title is issued by a federal council.

How long does the result last?

The materials used in the jaw and chin are resorbable. Duration depends on the area, the amount placed, the material chosen and how the patient metabolises it, so it is measured in months and reviewed in follow up rather than promised in advance.

Can I be treated from outside Brazil?

Treatment is delivered in person in Balneario Camboriu, Santa Catarina. Patients travelling from other states and countries are received at the clinic, and the assessment happens on site before anything is planned. Nothing on this site is an offer of treatment in another country.

Reference

Facial balancing in Brazil, planned by a dental surgeon

07 September 2026·7 min·By Dr. Rafael Lucci dos Santos, CRO-SC 18.965

Facial balancing is the planning of proportion across the face as one unit, instead of treating a single feature on its own. In practice it means measuring how the chin, the jaw line, the midface and the nose relate to each other, deciding which of them is carrying the imbalance, and treating that structure with injectable material placed on the bone plane or in the deep fat compartments. Nothing is cut and nothing is implanted. The material used in the jaw and chin is resorbable, so the result fades over months and is reviewed rather than fixed once.

The term travels badly between languages. In the United States and Canada the same work is searched for as facial balancing. In Brazil it has a formal name, orofacial harmonisation, and that name is not a marketing label: it is a dental specialty titled by the Federal Council of Dentistry. A patient reading in English will rarely find the Brazilian term, and a patient reading in Portuguese will rarely find the American one. They describe the same planning.

What facial balancing does not do is change bone. A jaw that is narrow at the bone, or a chin that is short in the vertical dimension beyond what a resorbable material can compensate, is a surgical question and belongs with a surgeon. Saying where the treatment stops is part of the plan, not a disclaimer at the end of it.

The term does not translate, it gets replaced

Anyone searching in English for what a Brazilian clinic calls harmonizacao facial will find almost nothing, and that is not a language gap, it is a vocabulary difference. The same planning goes by different names depending on where you are reading from: facial balancing in North America, facial harmonization in the term the Brazilian school uses, and jawline or chin work when the question is about one region of the face rather than the whole plan.

None of that changes what is being planned. What changes is the word, and knowing that saves you from concluding that a technique does not exist because the name you searched for is not the local one.

How this is regulated in Brazil

In Brazil, orofacial harmonisation is a dental specialty formally recognised by the Federal Council of Dentistry under Resolution 198/2019. No equivalent recognised specialty exists in the United States or the United Kingdom.

That sentence is a fact about naming and titling, not a claim of superiority, and it matters for a reader outside Brazil for one reason: it tells you what the credential behind the treatment actually is.

The comparison is limited on purpose, to the one thing that can be looked up in each country. The American Board of Medical Specialties publishes the list of specialties it recognises, and aesthetic medicine is not on it. The General Dental Council publishes the registers of recognised dental specialties, and facial aesthetics is not one of them. Both lists are public and neither claim needs to be taken on trust. This page says nothing about who is allowed to treat in those countries: that is scope of practice, it is decided by the regulator of each state or of each country, and a Brazilian page is not the place to read it. In Brazil, the title exists, the council issues it, and the registration is public.

Three verifiable facts about the professional behind this page:

He is a dental surgeon, graduated from Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Parana in 2005.
He holds professional registration CRO-SC 18.965 with the Regional Council of Dentistry of Santa Catarina, which is the registration that carries the specialty entry.
He has been registered in the orofacial harmonisation specialty with the Federal Council of Dentistry since 2023, and has worked in the field for more than six years.

Scope, stated before anything else

Dr. Rafael Lucci is a dental surgeon, CRO-SC 18.965, and his practice is limited to non surgical injectable treatment of the face. He does not perform surgery.

This line matters more in English than in Portuguese. In American English, the phrase dental surgeon pulls readers towards oral and maxillofacial surgery, which is a different profession with a different scope. Nothing on these pages should be read as an offer of surgical treatment, of implants, or of bone work.

What is treated, and what is left alone

The work concentrates on the lower third of the face and the transitions around it: the chin, the mandibular border, the angle of the jaw, the midface support that holds the cheek, and the nose profile when a small correction changes the whole line. In men, the most requested area by a distance is the jaw line, and the most common reason to say no is that the patient wants width where the bone base does not support it.

The first English article of this section takes exactly that question apart: does jawline filler make your face wider. It is the anxiety that stops most men before they ask anyone, and the answer runs through the chewing muscle, not through the filler.

Readers in Portuguese can find the same subject, written for the Brazilian market and in far more depth, at harmonizacao facial masculina.

Where treatment happens

The clinic is in Balneario Camboriu, Santa Catarina, on the Brazilian coast. Assessment is in person, and it is what defines whether treatment is indicated at all. Reading a page, in any language, is not an assessment.

Frequently asked questions

Is facial balancing the same as orofacial harmonisation?: They describe the same planning, under two names that grew in different markets. Orofacial harmonisation is the Brazilian term and, since 2019, a titled dental specialty in Brazil. Facial balancing is the term patients use in English speaking markets, where no equivalent titled specialty exists.
Can a dentist perform this treatment?: In Brazil, yes, and the scope is defined by the Federal Council of Dentistry, which recognised orofacial harmonisation as a dental specialty under Resolution 198/2019. Outside Brazil the answer is not ours to give. In the United States scope of practice is set state by state, by each state dental board, and in the United Kingdom it follows the scope of practice published by the General Dental Council, so a reader there should check their own regulator rather than take a Brazilian page as the source. What we can say about Brazil is narrower and checkable: here the work carries a titled name, and the title is issued by a federal council.
How long does the result last?: The materials used in the jaw and chin are resorbable. Duration depends on the area, the amount placed, the material chosen and how the patient metabolises it, so it is measured in months and reviewed in follow up rather than promised in advance.
Can I be treated from outside Brazil?: Treatment is delivered in person in Balneario Camboriu, Santa Catarina. Patients travelling from other states and countries are received at the clinic, and the assessment happens on site before anything is planned. Nothing on this site is an offer of treatment in another country.

Written and reviewed by

Dr. Rafael Lucci dos Santos

Dental surgeon. Practice limited to non surgical injectable treatment of the face.

CRO-SC 18.965

Published on 07 September 2026 · Clinical review on 07 September 2026

Assessment happens in person

The clinic is in Balneario Camboriu, Santa Catarina, Brazil. This page is reference material, not a consultation and not an offer of treatment.

Educational content. Treatment is delivered in person at the ArtFace clinic in Balneario Camboriu, Santa Catarina, Brazil. This page is not an offer of treatment in the United States or in the United Kingdom, and it does not replace an in person assessment.