Soft tissue facial profile of North American blacks: A self-assessment

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to gain insight into the preferences and opinions of North American blacks regarding black facial profiles in general and their own facial profile in particular. Lateral facial photographs of I53 North American black women of varying social and educational backgrounds between the ages of 18 and 4 I were shown to fourteen professionals (orthodontists, oral surgeons, and general dentists) of whom seven were black and seven were white. Their task was to separate the 153 photographs into ten categories. In addition, the fourteen judges were asked to select the profile most representative of each of the ten categories. Interand intrajudge reliability was shown to be exceedingly high in these categorizations. These ten representative profiles, randomly arranged, plus a questionnaire were presented to 224 North American black women of varying educational and social backgrounds, ranging in age from 18 to 4 I years. Subjects were asked to indicate which profile was most pleasing and which profile was least pleasing to them, which profile looked most like themselves, and their attitude toward their own profile. The profile type of each of the 224 respondents also was noted so that the degree of correlation between respondents’ judgments and their own profile type could be calculated. A significant majority of respondents preferred the straighter facial profiles; this preference was consistent among all age groups. A significant degree of disfavor was registered for the “Class II deep” extremely bimaxillary protrusive profile and the “Class III” profile types. Respondents generally were unsuccessful in recognizing their own profile types among the ten pictured profiles, and a substantial number of respondents desired no change in their profiles, regardless of their own profile type.