Perception of altered gingival aesthetics among orthodontists and dental students

Abstract

Introduction: High smile line can make smile unattractive. Aim of current study was to measure the mean attractiveness score of smile at altered gingival show levels as perceived by orthodontists and dental students.

Material & Methods: This cross sectional survey was conducted at de’Montmorency College of Dentistry, Pakistan. A constructed smiling photograph of a female having pleasing smile was edited using Adobe Photoshop software in order to modify gingival show in ±1 mm increment to produce 11 smile pictures, from −5 to 5mm gingival show. Visual analogue scale (VAS) was used by 100 participants (50 orthodontists and 50 dental students) to rank the smile attractiveness.

Results: Except for 0mm gingival show, significant smile perception differences were found among the orthodontists and dental students for all the other levels of gingival show.

Conclusions: The smile with 0 mm of gingiva was considered to be the most attractive by both orthodontists and dental students.