Ask Brian: What’s the little area above the upper lip called?
It's time again for the random impartation of knowledge. This installment has me answering a question that's truly pointless: "What's the little groove above your upper lip called?"
Answer: The Philtrum
Now… many blogs would leave it there. Oh no, my friends, Ask Brian would never do that. So here are some interesting Philtrum Facts:
- The philtrum is created during embryonic development by the meeting of the nasomedial and maxillary processes
- When these processes fail to fuse, the result is a cleft lip
- Smooth philtrum (along with small eyes and thin upper lip) is one of the diagnostic indicators for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
- The word comes comes from one of the Greek words for "Love" and the ancient Greeks believed it was an erogenous zone
- According to folklore, the philtrum is the spot where the angel "shushes" the baby to stop it from talking about heaven
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