Celebrity Smile Esthetics Assessment: Buccal Corridor and Smile Arcs

Research has focused on the quantification of dental and facial esthetics in an attempt to improve the results of prosthodontic and orthodontic treatment. Smile esthetics relates to attractiveness in the manner that the teeth are framed by the lips in a full smile. Two aspects of smile esthetics are buccal corridor width – the difference between the visible maxillary dentition width and the inner lip commissure width and smile arc – the curvature of the maxillary teeth in relation to the curvature of the lower lips or tooth/lip arc difference. Objectives: To determine if individuals identified as having a superior smile have different smile esthetics measures than an average population. Methods: an Internet search for “Best smile” and “Celebrity” identified 106 celebrities. The internet was searched for photographs of these celebrities showing a full smile from a frontal view. Photographs of dental students were used for the average group. Buccal corridor width was measured as a percentage of the inner commissure width using Adobe Photoshop and tooth and lip arcs matched to parabolas of the form n•x2 where n ranged from 0.005 to 0.060 in increments of 0.005. The parabolas were superimposed on the images using Photoshop. Groups were compared with ANOVA. Results: Usable photographs were obtained for 89 celebrities (69 Female, 20 Male) which were compared to 100 dental students (38 Female, 62 Male). There were significant (p<0.05) differences for mean buccal corridor width for celebrity status with celebrities having smaller buccal corridors or a broader smile (7.5%) than students (13.5%). Gender was also significant with females having smaller buccal corridor (8.9%) than males (13.0%) but not for the interaction (p=0.64). There were also significant differences (p<0.05) for smile arc coincidence by gender (female 0.0007; male 0.0012) but not for celebrity status (p=0.10). There were significant gender differences also for tooth arc, females having a greater curvature (0.0026) than males (0.0021) and not for lip arc (p=0.14). Conclusions: Celebrities identified as having a “best smile” had significantly smaller buccal corridors (broader smiles) than a control group. Females had significantly broader smiles, increased tooth arcs and reduced tooth/lip arc differences than males.