Perception of Smile aesthetic by dental students

Abstract

Introduction

The endless quest for harmony of the smile has indeed let to great advances in dentistry. The features that determine smile aesthetics could provide significant insights into post-treatment satisfaction and may predict a patient’s objectives when undergoing treatment.

Methods

Study is performed among 400 dental students. The study data were collected using a three-part questionnaire. The first part of the questionnaire included sociodemographic, facial aesthetic features, responses to photographs of different smiles. The smile aesthetics were evaluated according to their dentolabial, dentogingival, dental and dental arch characteristics using a 5-point numeric rating scale (1, best; 5, worst). The data were analysed using the Pearson’s chi-square and Mann-Whitney U tests.

Result

The study was conducted among 400 student which included Dental hygienist, undergraduate and post graduate dental students. Significantly more post graduate and under graduate student than dental hygienist focused on a person’s teeth when communicating (p < 0.005).  Post graduate and under graduate student were more critical than men when evaluating diastema, dental crowding, gingival smile, protrusion of anterior teeth, dental spacing, hypodontia and maxillary arch midline discrepancy. The most unfavourable smile characteristics were identified in the dental analysis category, with dental spacing ranked as the worst smile feature (mean numeric rating scale score 3.65).

Conclusion

Among dental students, the most distracting characteristics of a smile when determining its attractiveness were dental spacing, diastema, dental crowding, protrusion of anterior teeth hypodontia and gingival smile.