Further study of the relationship between facial dysmorphology and the brain may help to elucidate the full nature of the teratogenicity of alcohol. Additionally, characterization of these relationships could also lead to earlier identification of individuals affected by prenatal alcohol exposure, and hopefully earlier and more targeted interventions. A particularly promising avenue in this regard lies within 3D facial imaging methodologies. Suttie et al. [70] found that among nonsyndromal heavily exposed children, those with more FAS-like facial features performed poorer on neurobehavioral assessment than the children with more control-like features. Given the knowledge of the reciprocal relationships between facial dysmorphology and brain/cognitive changes, sensitive facial imaging methods may prove to be an extremely valuable diagnostic tool.
