ABSTRACT
Symmetry plays an important role in the perception of beauty. Deviated nasal septum, flat cheek bones or prominent chin enhances facial asymmetry. A small degree of bilateral asymmetry exists in essentially all normal individuals. However it has been reported that orthodontists and lay people differ in their ability to perceive asymmetry. The objective of this study was to observe the minimum chin deviation that can be perceived by a lay person and thus establish or identify possible correlation between jaw asymmetry and treatment need. A photograph of a famous superstar with a symmetric face was selected and manipulated using a software to create 5 variants; the original, 2mm chin deviation to right, 2mm chin deviation to left, 4mm chin deviation to right and 4mm chin deviation to left. Lay persons with no medical or arts background were asked to score all the five photographs on a scale of 1 to 15 being excellent and 5 as unsatisfactory. 60 survey forms were filled. Chi square test showed a highly significant [p<0.01] association between the degree of asymmetry and the scores received by the photographs. For correlation between degree of asymmetry and scores received, Spearman's correlation gave a significant [p<0.05] result for original and photographs with 2mm deviation while it yielded a highly significant [p<0.01] result for the original and 4mm deviation photographs. Lay persons are able to perceive chin deviations as small as 2mm