Clinical dental training increases students’ ability to critically analyse smile and facial beauty, according to a new study.
Dental students at various stages of training were presented with photos of a female model to rank from least to most aesthetically pleasing. The original photos of the model’s face and smile were digitally manipulated to alter certain aesthetic features including facial symmetry, gingival position, buccal corridor, and occlusal plane angulation.
Although the study acknowledges that perception of beauty varies based on geographical, ethnic, cultural, and demographic factors, it identifies these features as ‘objective criteria’ for evaluating facial aesthetics.
While all of the dental students scored highly in aesthetic perception, clinical students further through their training scored higher compared to preclinical students. They demonstrated significantly better perceptions of midline diastema, occlusal plane inclination, clinical crown height, and dental modifications.
Female students were found to have more sensitivity to factors relating to lower facial height than males. However, those with a dentist in their family were not significantly better at aesthetic judgment than those who did not.
Which aspects of beauty perception are not affected by dental training?
Despite high scores overall, perception of certain areas of smile aesthetics such as the buccal corridor did not improve with clinical training.
The study says: ‘The buccal corridor has been reported as a challenging criterion to assess, even for dental specialists, and it plays a significant role in overall smile aesthetics. Furthermore, the lack of a significant difference between clinical and preclinical students in evaluating the buccal corridor highlights the need for improved education and training on this complex aesthetic parameter.’
Similarly, facial symmetry was noticed by less than half of the students – despite being described as ‘a fundamental aspect of facial beauty and attractiveness’.
The study’s authors suggest that these ‘subtle aspects of dentofacial aesthetics’ should be ‘further emphasised and strengthened within undergraduate dental education programs’.
Published in BMC Medical Education, the study evaluated almost 500 dental students using a Google Form. This included 240 clinical students and 253 non-clinical, 312 female compared to 181 male, and 89 who had a dentist in their family compared to 404 who did not.
Follow Dentistry.co.uk on Instagram to keep up with all the latest dental news and trends.
