Abstract
Concepts of beauty can vary among people of different age, gender, educational level, and cultural background.
Aim: the aim of this study was to evaluate the perception differences of smile aesthetics by female patients, dental students, general dentists and specialists in Tehran in 2013.
Methods: A smiling photograph of a young adult female was taken and digitally altered for three components (gingival exposure, lateral-to-central incisors length ratio, and intra-central mesio-incisal angle) by Adobe Photoshop software. One hundred individuals consisting of 20 female patients, 20 dental students, 20 general dentists and 40 specialists (20 in operative dentistry and 20 in prosthodontics) were selected at random and asked to assess the modified photographs and select the most attractive and unattractive pictures respecting each component. The 100 assessors included 40 males and 60 females with an age ranged between 24-68 years and a mean age of 38.4 years. Data were statistically analyzed with SPSS soft- ware. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann- Whitney tests were used to verify significant differences, at the p<0.05 level, among individual assessors.
Results: In respect of the assessment of the most unattractive gingival exposure, female patients differed significantly from general dentists and specialists in operative dentistry (p<0.05). Female patients perception of most unattractive lateral- to-central incisors length ratio was significantly different to that of dental students, general dentists and specialists in operative dentistry and prosthodontics(p<0.05). Males presented significantly different perceptions to females in most unattractive lateral-to-central incisors length ratio and most attractive intra-central mesioincisal angle (p<0.05).
Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest differences in aesthetic perception between patients and dental professionals as well as between males and females, dependent on the nature of evaluated smile component.
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