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R E S E A R C H
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D
dentistry considered
mostly functional
ABSTRACT ✷
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A A
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®
demands (for example,
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Background. Esthetics has become an important
CON
repairing the destructive
IO
issue in modern society, as it seems to define one’s
T
effects of dental caries). However,
A
N
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character. In the past, functional demands were the U C
DISCUSSION Do you feel your teeth are poorly 6.5 < .001
aligned? (Answered “Yes”)
Esthetics has become an important
Are you hiding your teeth while 3.2 .003
aspect of dentistry. Until about the last smiling? (Answered “Yes”)*
two decades, clinicians considered
Do you suffer from dental caries in 2 .03
esthetics to be far less important than your anterior teeth? (Answered “Yes”)
function, structure and biology. Today,
* Hiding teeth while smiling is a reflection of dissatisfaction, not a cause of it.
however, if a treatment plan does not
include a clear view of its esthetic
impact on the patient, the outcome could be disas- was influenced mainly by tooth color.
trous.4 Clinicians should begin a treatment plan We found that women were more satisfied with
with well-defined esthetic objectives, and they the general appearance of their teeth than were
then should consider the impact of the planned men. In a survey of attitudes regarding dental
treatment on function, structure and biology. esthetics, Vallittu and colleagues27 found that
Such planning requires the clinician to rely on tooth appearance was more important to women
several disciplines (such as prosthodontics, peri- than to men. We should point out, however, that
odontics and orthodontics) to deliver the highest our cohort consisted of more men than women
level of dental care to the patient. because of the military setting of the study.
The main objective of our study was to report We conducted this study in a young cohort
patients’ esthetic perceptions of their teeth. Dif- (mean age, 21 years) of subjects who arrived at
ferences in esthetic perceptions among dentists, the dental clinic for a scheduled meeting. We can
dental students and laypeople have been exam- assume that most of the subjects had received
ined in the literature. Generally, studies have dental treatment in the past. This might have
found that dentists are more sensitive with contributed to the discrepancy we found between
regard to identifying deviations from the so-called overall satisfaction with tooth appearance (62.7
ideal appearance than are laypeople.9,19-24 percent) and satisfaction with tooth color (43 per-
Carlsson and colleagues25 and Wagner and col- cent). Nevertheless, 13.8 percent of subjects
leagues26 found that people who were not dentists reported that they hid their teeth when smiling.
had a stronger preference for white teeth than did A major goal of dental treatment should be to re-
dentists. In addition, Vallittu and colleagues27 establish esthetics and enable patients to feel con-
reported that various groups of patients had dif- fident about smiling without having to hide their
ferent attitudes toward the appearance of their teeth. (However, it is possible that some patients
teeth. In our study, subjects’ self-reported satis- may be overly sensitive about the appearance of
faction with the general appearance of their teeth their teeth and do not need whitening or other