Perceptions of dental aesthetics in the United States and Nigeria

Abstract

The standard dental aesthetic index (DAI) is an orthodontic treatment need index based on perceptions of dental aesthetics in the United States. It is a regression equation that links perceptions of the social acceptability of dental aesthetics with the objective intraoral measurements of ten occlusal traits. For the index to be universally acceptable, the perceptions of dental aesthetics in other countries must be similar to those of the United States. This study was designed to determine whether the perceptions of dental aesthetics of Nigerian students are similar to those of different groups of the US population. The same 25 stimuli (photographs of dental configurations, a subset of the 200 stimuli used in deriving the standard DAI equation) were rated for dental aesthetics by Nigerian students. Their ratings were compared with ratings of the same 25 stimuli by US parents, students and orthodontists. Spearman rank-order correlations ranged from 0.75 to 0.84. These correlations were highly significant (P<0.0001), and showed that the perceptions of dental aesthetics of Nigerian students were very similar to those of the US groups. The study therefore concluded that standard DAI could be used as a screening tool and without modification in epidemiological surveys among Nigerians.

Pilot survey of oral health-related quality of life: a cross-sectional study of adults in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

“…[25] Most participants in this study felt that their oral health had an effect, mostly a good or very good effect on their QoL, similar to earlier studies from developed countries. [34,35] Studies conducted in Nigeria have also reported that there appear to be a shortage in the number of practicing dentists, [36] and the involvement of physicians untrained in oral health care providing dental services.…”

“…[24] Overall, their perception of the importance of dental health was similar to those reported from the United States. [25] In a recently published study conducted in Nigeria we demonstrated that being younger, being female, and being employed were associated with visiting a dentist in the past 12 months. [26] Other studies have documented prevalence of dental caries and periodontal disease in Nigeria, [27] and described oral health care practice among physicians, [28] as well as oral health knowledge and attitudes of Nigerian school teachers.…”

Ethnic variations in orthodontic treatment need in London schoolchildren

“…Ahmed et al [14] reported that children from black ethnic minorities were more likely to perceive less need for treatment compared to professional assessment. In contrast, Otuyemi et al [19] showed no difference in the perceptions of dental aesthetics between adult Nigerians and Americans.…”

Educational intervention on Oro-dental Hygiene among Secondary School Children at Dhaka, Bangladesh

“…3 There is no nation free from oro-dental diseases, but the pattern of prevalence of the diseases vary from country to country. [3][4][5]7,10 Oral hygiene mainly depends on the knowledge of the people. In students, the knowledge and practice of oro-dental hygiene can be raised through child to child education.…”