The Cheek Quiz: A Lively Cosmetic Exercise Demonstrating the Importance of Sun Protection

UV light is a major contributor to the visual and functional decline in skin health over time. In order to more vividly highlight the importance of sun protection to patients, we created a playful yet demonstrative “quiz” to help reinforce this concept. We photographed the sun-exposed facial cheeks as well as the sun-protected buttock cheeks of women in 5 different decades of life (mid 20s–mid 60s), and randomly ordered the photographs for evaluation. Fifty participants were then asked to guess the correct decade of the “cheeks” from each anatomical site. More than three-fourths of quiz participants were 100% correct in guessing the subject age by evaluating their facial cheeks. In contrast, fewer than 5% of quiz participants were able to do so by looking at the buttock cheeks. This visual demonstration of the relative importance of UV exposure versus chronology in the perceived aging of skin offers an entertaining way to get patients involved in maintaining good skin health.