Influence of lower facial height changes on frontal facial attractiveness and perception of treatment need by lay people

Abstract

Objective: To test the hypothesis that lower facial height has no influence on frontal facial attractiveness and treatment need perception of lay people. Materials and Methods: Frontal facial silhouettes of a man and a woman with normal lower facial height values (male: 81.5 mm; female: 70.5 mm) were modified by increasing and decreasing their lower facial heights in steps of 1 mm to obtain frontal images with different lower facial height alterations ranging from +6 mm to 26 mm for each sex. A panel of 100 lay people scored each silhouette's attractiveness on a 100-mm visual analogue scale (VAS) and also indicated whether they would seek treatment if the image represented their own. The Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to compare the VAS scores. Results: Unaltered 61-mm and 62-mm silhouettes got the highest VAS scores. Scores were significantly lower (P # .001) as the divergence from the normal value exceeded 2 mm. Beyond +3 mm and 24 mm in females and +4 mm and 23 mm in males the difference between the scores became statistically insignificant. At 64 mm, more than 75% of the raters elected to have treatment.

Gender, Age, and Psychosocial Context of the Perception of Facial Esthetics

“…It must be emphasized that the profile distortions in this study had a normal vertical dimension and that any variations or changes in the vertical can radically influence facial profile features. Variations in lower facial vertical dimension over 3 mm can significantly reduce the perception of attractiveness of the face, and lay people are more tolerant to an increased vertical dimension in male and a decreased in female faces …”

Differences in Lip Support with and without Labial Flanges in a Maxillary Edentulous Population. Part 2: Blinded Subjective Analysis

“…This instrument was chosen due to the subjective nature of facial esthetics assessment, and the difficulty inherent in the quantification of facial esthetics. VAS is known to be a popular method for evaluating facial esthetics, and has been used previously in the dental and socio‐psychological literature . VAS has been reported to have inherent limitations related to mental fatigue of the judge and compliance .…”

Differences in Lip Support with and without Labial Flanges in a Maxillary Edentulous Population. Part 4: Patient‐Centered Analysis

“…Third, as discussed in parts 2 and 3 of the study, the use of a VAS instrument for ratings has inherent limitations related to mental fatigue and compliance . However, this scale has been used in numerous studies in dental and socio‐psychological literature . Finally, as described in detail in part 3 of the study, use of the triangle test employed images of the same subject side‐by‐side, which would never represent realistic assessments made within a clinical environment.…”