Abstract: Accurate and effective anthropometric method is essential to plastic surgery. However, direct anthropometry and two-dimensional photogrammetry have no longer meet the standard of evidence-based medicine due to their low accuracy and low repeatability. Nowadays, with the developments of optical technology, three-dimensional optical surface imagining systems have gradually applied in clinical fields and become a necessary quantitative analyzing method for facial tissue. In this paper, the development, technical principle, imaging accuracy, application and future prospects of three-dimensional optical surface imagining systems were reviewed to provide new ideas and reference for further broadening the application field. 

Key words: Three-dimensional optical surface imaging system, 　Three-dimensional scanning, 　Facial soft tissue,
 ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  , 　Digital plastic surgery ,