Assessing the perception of smile attractiveness in young adults, a pilot study

ABSTRACT

To assess the perception of dental, art and business students on the importance of smile attractiveness and the understanding on effect of skin tone on tooth shade value as perceived by the 3 groups. It was a cross sectional, analytical study conducted in Art, Business and Dental Schools. Ninety 90 students [3 groups of 30 each]were selected by non probability, purposive sampling. 24 pictures were run in front of the participants as power point presentations. The pictures were of two individual smiles, a male and a female, with changes made to colour of teeth and skin, in Adobe Photoshop. The participants were asked to grade each picture on a rating scale. SPSS 17.0 was used for data analysis. Frequency distribution of all variables was determined. Association of smile attractiveness with gender and profession was determined using Chi-square test. Mean ranks and score [of the 24 pictures] of smile attractiveness as perceived by the 3 groups were compared using Kruskall-Wallis test. Level of significance was set at 0.05. The sample size consisted of 34.1%males and 64.8%females. For the dental group smile attractiveness was very important as opposed to the business and art students. For females, smile attractiveness was more important than their male counterparts. Fair skin with bright and moderately bright teeth rated as the most attractive smile, whereas fair skin with dark teeth rated as the least attractive smile. There is a difference in perception of smile attractiveness between males and females. Art, business and dental students also have different perceptions of smile attractiveness with respect to skin tones and tooth shade values