‘Cute’, ‘adorable’ are usually the words used to describe people with dimples. Rightly so, because, to many, they are one of the cutest features a person can have.

People who have them are constantly complimented and many who don’t desire to have them. In extreme cases, surgery has been used to try and get dimples. 

However, there is talk about dimples being some sort of birth defect. According to Healthline, because cheek dimples can result from a muscular variation that occurs during foetal development, they’re sometimes mistakenly referred to as a birth defect.

It’s important to remember that not only are cheek dimples rather common, they also don’t have any negative health effects, the site states. 

Little research has been done to explore the genetics of dimples, and it is not known which gene or genes may be involved. Some researchers say that there is no proof that dimples are inherited. However, people with cheek dimples do tend to have children with cheek dimples. This suggests that it’s a heritable dominant trait. However, not every couple with dimples has a child with dimples, Healthline states. 

There are many myths about dimples; including being a good luck charm. Some people have dimples in both cheeks, others in just one cheek. 

Babies are likely to have dimples caused by baby fat in their cheeks. When they lose their baby fat as they get older, the dimples disappear. Other children do not have them at birth but may develop them later in childhood.  In some people, dimples last only until adolescence or young adulthood, while in others they are a lifetime trait.

Dimples that have a similar appearance can occur in successive generations of a family. For example, in one family, it was observed that the siblings, their father, uncles, grandfather, and great-grandfather all had similar-looking dimples in both cheeks. In other families, dimples may occur in a child but are not seen in more than one generation.