Friday, March 18, 2022

The First USC Trojan Dentist To Elucidate and Name An 'Unusual' Oral Anatomy Feature!... The Winge's Peak!

 


Noella Coursaris Musunka, what is that on the middle of your upper lip?

It's a Winge's Peak, of course!


Doctor Ralph Winge, a graduate of USC Dental School, and former Clinical Instructor, hadn't really paid attention to this upper-lip variation until he saw President Barack Obama 

in 2011, in an interview on a sharp and detail-revealing big screen TV.


He asked himself, "What is that midline feature called?"


So, in the following days and weeks, he scoured the many Human Anatomy Books and Internet sources to find any mention of this stomatological  phenomenon.


Winge found no mention of it.


He then decided to precisely document and scientifically describe this variation, and later, a venerated local newspaper, the Los Angeles Sentinel, published the article, along with a photo of President Obama, showing what was eventually termed 'Winge's Peak.'


An edited version of the elucidation reads, "Anatomically, it is a naturally-occurring,variably-manifested, vertically-oriented, differentiated soft tissue, epithelial-emanating fold or ridge or line, which coincides with the midline of the face and the interincisal line, and runs down the middle of the middle tubercle surface of the rostral upper lip, which may extend inferiorly from the middle of the Vermillion Border's Cupid's Bow, down to the lower edge of the lip, with or without significant elevation above the surrounding labial tissues."


The Dentist also noticed that the elucidated Winge's Peak had some genetic dominance, as President Obama's daughters Malia

and Sasha

both possess one. And all of the members of 'America's First Family of Acting,' Will Smith, 

Jada Pinkett Smith, 

Jaden Smith, 

and Willow 

Smith also have one.   


Winge first thought that this specific labial anatomy wasn't at all common. But he soon realized that this feature was more prevalent that he first thought.

He decided to compile a short list of celebrities that have this 'special anatomy,' and called it "Oral Anatomical Winge's Peaks...Of The Rich...The Famous...And the Very Powerful!," where he asks the question, Is The Winge's Peak, A Rare And Beautifying Midline Landmark On The Upper Lip, With It's 'Potentially-Hypnotic' Visual Effect During Speaking, A Genetic And Phenotypic Holdover From A 'Special Ancestral' Human Species?..."

Winge has yet to dissect the lip of a person with a WP, to detail the exact tissue components, however the Peak is wholly within the vermillion 


surface


of the lip. 

Winge does note that a WP is more noticeable when the lips are relaxed or even pursed, as shown here with Marilyn 


Monroe, and it seems to 'disappear,' in many cases, when the lips are stretched, with a smile, for instance.


It can be stated that no two WPs are exactly the same, so Winge classified the 'variation spectrum' of them, from Class I to Class III, with Class Zero meaning that there is no physical attribute visually noticed,


Class I 

-seems to be just a simple differentiated linear embodiment, with almost no height along its length, as seen with

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson


Kerry Washington


Gelila Bekele,


Dwayne Johnson.


Chris Rock


Tom Cruise



and


Michael Jai White.





Class II

-has a definite height along its length, as seen with 

Bruce Willis


Shaquille O'Neal


Ito Uwais




Tony Jaa


President Xi Jinping, 




Jackie Chan



Priyanka Chopra



and

Danai Gurira.



Class III

-an easy to see demarcation with noticable height and width, as seen with

Mary Wiseman

 

Eiza Gonzales 


Olivia Wang Zi-wen


Kanye West


Milauna Jackson


Viola Davis


Wesley Snipes


and


Antonio Banderas.



Winge hopes one day to decipher where on the DNA the coding 


for a WP lies.



According to this gif of normal embryonic facial morphogenesis, the WP area of the lip seems to be the 


last area of the upper lip to take form.


Normally, the embryonic epithelium and mesenchyme of the upper right and left lip halves, join surfaces and 'zipper on down' to 'close at the end,' at the lower edge 


of the lip.


As this lip closure completes itself, if there are WP genetic pressures present, special molecular construction mechanisms kick in to establish the surface and subsurface foundational elements of the proto-Winge's Peak.


Winge does hope to gain a better understanding, through research, the morphogenetic and molecular signaling pathways, such as Bmp4,  Fgf, Shh, and Wnt, seen in and around the early stomodeum, which ultimately coordinate the differentiated tissue genesis and expressed patterning seen with a WP.









Ralph Winge, D.D.S.


USC Dental School Graduate '77







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For all Photos and Gifs seen here, no copyright infringement is intended.










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