What do black patients expect from orthodontic treatment? The aesthetic perception of facial profile between orthodontists and black laypersons

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the influence of anteroposterior position of the soft tissue on facial attractiveness in black people, and compare the perception of aesthetics and satisfaction between orthodontists and black laypersons. Methods: The sample was composed of 69 orthodontists and 69 laypersons of black ethnicity (n=138). Facial profile photographs of two black volunteers, a man and a woman, were digitally manipulated to change the position of the lips and chin, by making gradual changes of 4mm in relation to the true vertical line, simulating advance or retrusion of the soft tissues by -2, -6, -10, +2, +6, +10mm, totalling six images per sex. The photographs were classified by the research participants using a visual analogue scale (VAS), from 0 (unpleasant) to 100 (pleasant). The results were analyzed by generalized linear model and by the Fisher’s exact test, considering the level of significance of 5%. Results: The orthodontists and black laypersons considered straight profiles the most pleasant. The two groups classified the male profile as being more unpleasant in comparison with the female facial profile, which was concave. When evaluating all the images together, the image most indicated as being the most pleasant, once again, was the one with the straight profile, for both sexes. Conclusion: The influence of orthodontists’ and laypersons’ aesthetic perception on evaluating the facial profile of blacks was similar. The straight profile was classified as the most pleasant and the concave, as the most unpleasant.

Does the aesthetic perception of protrusion correction change if the face is evaluated from the frontal or profile perspectives?

“…On the hand, many other studies have shown that, regardless of the ethnic morphological background of the individual, the most aesthetic setting is the straight or even the slightly concave profile Carneiro et al, 2018;Soares et al, 2012;De Oliveira et al, 2015;Souza et al, 2022).…”

Does Psychosocial Impact of Dental Aesthetics Questionnaire (PIDAQ) reflect the impact of malocclusion on facial aesthetics?

“…6 Recent studies on facial esthetic evaluation, the effect of an unfavourable inclination of the incisors on soft tissue aesthetics, the lack of acceptability of convex facial profiles induced by bimaxillary protrusion among black patients etc., have all referred to this index. [7][8][9] However, the psychosocial impact of altered facial aesthetics has never been investigated so far.…”