Dental Aesthetic Perception of Dentistry Students: A Literature Review

Abstract

The appearance of a smile has increasingly become a factor that significantly impacts an individual's self-esteem and social context. Consequently, there is a growing desire for changes in the oral region to achieve what is considered an ideal smile, particularly in light of new beauty standards, where white and aligned teeth are deemed highly relevant. However, the concept of beauty is highly subjective, and sometimes dental standards do not align with patients' aesthetic desires. This study aims to evaluate the dental aesthetic perception of dentistry students through an integrative review. For the reference framework, we searched articles from the PubMed and Lilacs databases from the past five years, using the keywords "Dental esthetic," "dental student," and "Smiling," with the Boolean operator "and." After a thorough reading of all the articles, nine studies were selected. This review showed that the level of education and gender presented differences in the perception of dental aesthetics. However, students generally agree that aesthetics must be associated with the health and naturalness of the smile, following dental anatomy, dental alignment, buccal corridor, level of gingival exposure, and color.