The effect of canine characteristics and symmetry on perceived smile attractiveness when canine teeth are substituted for lateral incisors

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by John R. Radford.

Abstract

Of note, the control image with 'accepted ideal smile characteristics' was not rated as that having the most pleasing appearance by lay people, dentists and orthodontists.

Main

Rayner WJ, Barber SK et al. J Orthod 2015; 42: 22–32

A possible explanation for this is that full-face images were rated in this study, whereas most other studies restricted their images to the teeth and circumoral structures. Such would also chime with a study (J Am Dent Assoc 2010; 141: 40–46) that concluded '...even the smiling mouth, received less than 10 percent of the viewers' visual attention.' The investigators in this study also found that lack of symmetry around the maxillary dental midline '...were not perceived as being significantly less attractive than the smiles with symmetrical dental arrangements.' This study invited lay people, dentists and orthodontists (n = 30 in each group) to rate smile attractiveness of an 'ideal smile', and other images with different configurations of canine appearance, all morphed from an image made up from four average female faces. As shown by other studies, lay people were comfortable with the appearance if the canine tooth was in the position of the lateral incisor tooth.