Perception of different combinations of tones of lip vermilion and gingiva on smile attractiveness

Hafiza Armish Siraj; Waqar Jeelani; Maheen Ahmed

Perception of different combinations of tones of lip vermilion and gingiva on smile attractiveness

Authors

Hafiza Armish Siraj BDS; Resident, Orthodontics, College of Dentistry, Bakhtawar Amin Medical and Dental College, Multan.
Waqar Jeelani BDS, FCPS, MOrth RCSEd; Director Orthodontic Residency Program, Associate Professor and Head of Department, College of Dentistry, Bakhtawar Amin Medical and Dental College, Multan.
Maheen Ahmed BDS, FCPS, MOrth RCSEd; Assistant Professor, Department of Orthodontics, College of Dentistry, Bakhtawar Amin Medical and Dental College, Multan, Pakistan.

Keywords:

Gingiva, lip, pigmentation, skin, smile

Abstract

Introduction: The lip and gingival tones may affect smile esthetics even when a patient has perfect set of teeth. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of different combinations of tones of lip vermilion and gingiva on the smile attractiveness.

Material and methods: A male and female smile photograph were digitally manipulated to create a range of images of different colors of lip vermilion (L1-wheatish, L2-fair, L3-pink, and L4-dark) and gingiva (G1-wheatish, G2-pink, and G3-dark). Thus, two set of 12 photographs each with various combination of lip vermillion and gingival shades were generated for male smile (ML1G1 to ML4G3) and female smile (FL1G1 to FL4G3). 100 laypersons and 100 dentists evaluated the attractiveness of each image according to the visual analog scale.

Results: In general, ML3G1 image for male smile and FL3G2 image for female smile were rated highest with the mean score of 74.84±19.44 and 70.38±19.68, respectively. The lowest scores for male and female smiles were for ML4G1 (34.85±19.77) and FL4G2 (23.58±22.87). There were significant differences in the mean smile attractiveness scores of ML1G2, ML4G1, FL1G2, FL1G3, FL2G2 and FL2G3 between male and female perceivers and of ML3G2, ML4G2, FL1G2, FL2G3, FL4G2 and FL4G3 between laypersons and dentists.

Conclusions: Dark tones of lip and gingiva were consistently rated unaesthetic while the pink and wheatish tones of lip and vermillion were consistently reported to be more esthetic. The harmony between lip vermillion and gingival tones also affected smile attractiveness with dental surgeons’ being more sensitive to it.