The present study aims to answer the need to have an up to date study related to facial aesthetic damage assessment in the field of legal medicine in Costa Rica. For this study it was used a population of 239 cases evaluated for facial injury sequels extracted from the files of the Clinical Forensic Medicine Section of the Legal Medicine Department in Costa Rica during the year 2011. Variables used include socio demographic and others used in characterization and evaluation of facial aesthetic damage. Among the most relevant results of this study it was evidenced a predominance of masculine cases and in the group of 20 to 29 years, the injuries, in the majority of cases, were produced by a blunt object. The most frequent type of aesthetic damage encountered were the scars, in more than half of the cases it was not indicated if the scars produced alteration of the facial harmony or if they were retractable and in a third of cases it was not mention if there was facial mimic alteration. The majority of the scars were described as hipocromic and flat. In regard to visibility, in more than a third of the cases the alterations were described as visible in conversation distance and 20% as visible in social distance. Only a fifth part of the cases were cataloged as indelible mark. In nearly a 70% of the cases no percentage of permanent impairment were established The present study reflects the importance of the evaluation of the aesthetic damage nowadays and also the need to have standardized criteria to perform this kind of assessment and to determine the presence of facial indelible mark.

Permanent impairment assessment; facial aesthetic damage; indelible mark; facial scars