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
Class II
-has a definite height along its length, as seen with
Shaquille O'Neal
Jackie Chan
and
Danai Gurira.
Class III
-an easy to see demarcation with noticable height and width, as seen with
Mary Wiseman
Olivia Wang Zi-wen
Kanye West
Milauna Jackson
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
The Winge Institute For The Oral Sciences
The Winge Cyber/Virtual Dental School
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