Smile esthetics perception by the general population among different age groups in tiruchengode

Abstract

To evaluate the smile esthetic perception on varying gingival display and black triangles among individuals aged between 18-35 and 36-50 using a visual analog scale (VAS). To evaluate the two variables (gingival display and Black triangle), a photo album is created that consist of two sets of photos which included six different photographs in each set. The frontal view of young adult female smile was selected for evaluating the esthetic perception. The smile features in the photographs is digitally altered using Adobe Photoshop CS6. Black triangles images are created using 0.5-mm increments. The gingival display by decreasing (−) the distance (2.0 and 4.0 mm) and increasing (+) the distance (2.0, 4.0, and 6.0 mm). The photographs are printed on photographic paper to create a photo album and coded from 1 to 6 and the scoring was done using a 10 cm visual analog scale (VAS). The participants are asked to mark the VAS score according to the attractiveness of each smile image separately with individual ratings.The comparisonofsmile esthetic perception among age groups was done using the Mann-Whitney U test. On comparing, the results revealed that laypeople with 18-35 yrs have given more scores for 0 mm Black triangle and for 2 mm gingival display which showed statistically significant results. Comparison of images among different age groups does not show significant results. The impact on the perception of smile esthetics vary among different age groups in terms of gingival display and black triangle.