Evaluation of Self Contentment with Dental Appearance and Preference to Treatment to Improve Esthetics

Abstract

Introduction: Oral health not only comprises of mere absence of oral disease and dysfunction but also includes dental appearance for overall facial beauty as it has influence on person’s self confidence and social life. Dental aesthetic comprises of tooth color, shape, alignment and position of the teeth in the dental arches. For the rewarding outcome of the treatment, clinician need to understand the root of dissatisfaction with present aesthetic and desired treatment to enhance the aesthetic that will assist in development of treatment plan.

Materials and Methods: Pre-tested structured questionnaire was used in 349 subjects from previous studies with slight modification for data collection. The questionnaire was divided into three parts, first part recorded the demographic data, second part consisted of the patients’ view regarding satisfaction of the dental appearance and third part consist of the Likert scale where participants will rate the satisfaction level regarding their general appearance.

Results: A relationship between gender (P<0.05), education (P=0.006) and overall satisfaction of the general appearance of the teeth was seen. Males were found to be more satisfied than females and people with higher education were more satisfied with their general dental appearance. For majority of the participants, choice of treatment to improve the aesthetic was teeth whitening (37.25%) followed by orthodontic treatment (29.80%), then dental crown, veneers (27.29%). The least favoured treatment by the participants is denture (5.16%) to improve the aesthetic.

Conclusions: Dissatisfaction with the color, alignment, teeth appearance and condition are the main reasons for the patients to seek aesthetic treatment.