Public Preferences for Anterior Tooth Variations: A Web‐Based Study

Abstract

This study was undertaken to determine the public's preferences for five esthetic variations, with the goal of linking preferences to demographic data such as age, gender, country of residence, and race. Using photo-editing software, five pairs of images with anterior tooth variations were put on a Web page with forms to collect demographic data and ranking of the image pairs. Opinions were solicited by sending out a large number of e-mails with a short study description and an invitation to access the Web page. The responses were tabulated and analyzed with logistic regression (alpha = 0.05). Valid responses were received from 2185 computer users in 45 countries. Because of the small number of respondents from most countries, only the responses from the United States and Canada (n = 1934) were analyzed. Variables collected were birth date, gender, race or ethnic background, and last dental visit. Analysis indicated that different variables were significant for different questions. Last dental visit and the interaction of gender and race were not significant in any of the models. Strongest preferences concerned diastema and midline shift and the weakest concerned whiteness and proportion. The largest minority view was the straight embrasures. Statistically significant differences were attributable to age, gender, and race. Females had stronger preferences in all conditions. Respondents younger than 40 years of age had stronger preferences for whiteness and against diastema, and whites strongly rejected the diastema. This study provides guidelines about the public's preferences concerning some commonly encountered conditions in esthetic dentistry.