Pick a smile: the perception and alteration of Gums, Color of the teeth and Lips

Abstract

Facial attractiveness plays a key role in social life. Facial attractiveness and smile attractiveness appear strongly linked to one another. The fact is that in social interaction, one’s attention is mainly directed toward the mouth and eyes of the speaker’s face. As the mouth is the focus of communication in the face, the smile plays an important role in facial expression and appearance. Esthetic appearance is extremely subjective and relates to beauty and harmony. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the perception of smile by laymen, orthodontists and Prosthodontists by changing lip size, teeth color and gingival display. This research project was carried out in Saudi Arabia for one year from January to December 2020, following approval by the Institute's Ethics Committee. Materials and Methods: A model was chosen with full permanent dentition, multiple pictures were created and afterwards evaluated by Laymen population, Orthodontists and Prosthodontists. Results: The results of the study reveal that smiles with whiter teeth and thicker lips were judged to be more aesthetic by laypersons compared to orthodontists, and prosthodontists. The minimum amount of gingival display was considered esthetic by the three groups. Perception of Orthodontists and Prosthodontists had no significant difference in gingival display, color of the teeth and thickness of lips.