RESUMO
AIM: To assess the influence of dentofacial appearance of 10-year-old children on interpersonal attractiveness. STUDY DESIGN: Survey. METHODS: Four sets of photographs were prepared, having as their initial models facial portraits of four boys and four girls. In each set facial portraits were presented in four situations: the original, harmonic face and three versions produced by a graphic computing program, classified as the class II, class III and long face syndromes. These photographs were shown to 802 schoolchildren so that they could choose which one they would most and which one they would least, want to have as a friend. Also they were asked which one they considered the most and the least aggressive, the most and least intelligent and the most and the least good-looking. RESULTS: The harmonic face was the predominant choice in the friendship dimension (68.9%), as for intelligence (46.8%), and regarding attractiveness for males (55.4%) and females (61.7%); as regards aggressiveness, class III was the predominant choice (57.9%). CONCLUSIONS: There is an association between harmonic and unharmonic facial appearances and interpersonal attractiveness in 10-year-old Brazilian children.