Facial appearance can be a significant clue in the initial identification of genetic conditions, but their low incidence limits exposure during training and inhibits the development of skills in recognising the facial "gestalt" characteristic of many dysmorphic syndromes. Here we describe the potential of computer-based models of three-dimensional (3D) facial morphology to assist in dysmorphology training, in clinical diagnosis and in multidisciplinary studies of phenotype-genotype correlations.