The principles of visual perception and their clinical application to denture esthetics

Abstract

The perceptual principles can free dentists from the confusion existing in the field of dental esthetics and enable them to confidently approach the task of enhancing their patients' appearance. Principles may be applied to all and they eliminate the personal attributes of talent and the need for learning specific formulas for achieving an esthetic result. “The determination of the form principles in a specific example of design means, in a sense, the elimination of the personal element. With this element removed the residue represents merely the planning knowledge possessed by the artist. ... Invariably the higher or more perfect the art, the richer is the remainder when the personal element is removed.” 17 The eye is a perfectly competent evaluator and errors will become obvious if a long contemplative look is taken at the tooth arrangement during the try-in appointment. A real need for a very detailed, almost histologic approach to dental esthetics exists. Indeed, the perceptive principles may be regarded as the cellular elements of which the tissue of denture esthetics is composed. As familiarity with the principles increases, so does proficiency in their application. With experience, the basic shape and characteristic of the dental tooth arrangement can be visualized even before a single tooth is placed in wax. All that remains is a detailed examination at try-in to look for minor perceptive conflicts, and this too becomes less of a task with the training of the eye to really see. The field of dental esthetics is of critical importance to the well-being of patients, and one of dentistry's greatest challenges is to completely eliminate the delivery of static, poorly planned, clumsily executed dentures. This challenge is each individual dentist's responsibility and cannot be subcontracted. The laboratory technician is a valuable ally, but he has no decision-making role in the area of denture esthetics. Fisher 18 has best stated the objectives that must be achieved in denture esthetics. In his words, “It is the purpose of those who have labored diligently and long in the pursuit of a more workable basic principle in esthetics to encourage all of those whose tasks take them into the field of prosthodontics to consider the opportunity to lift the patient out of the category of a geometric figure and restore to him his true quality of a living and breathing man or woman, with an individual personality and either the dignity of his years or the freshness of his youth.” This is the proper note on which to close, or perhaps to begin.