Materials and Methods: 21 patients (39 - 78 years, 8 women, 13 men) were restored with removable dentures. Patients were asked before and after treatment how they were satisfied with their appearance. Possible answers were: absolutely unsatisfied, somewhat satisfied, satisfied and very satisfied. In addition 16 lay persons and 10 dentists were given two folders with front views of the patient faces taken before and after therapy. In one folder the pictures were arranged pair wise, e.g., with the picture of the same patient taken before and after therapy while in the other one all pictures were randomly arranged. Evaluation started with the “randomized folder”. The 16 lay persons and 10 dentists had to answer the following question: “Do you consider this face as very unpleasant, barely pleasant, pleasant and very pleasant?"
Statistical analysis: Data were first analyzed by MANOVA to assess whether the evaluation differed between before and after therapy, lay persons and dentists, random and non-random presented pictures. ANOVA for repeated measures was used to investigate how patients, lay persons and dentists evaluated the esthetic change. Differences in the evaluation between patients, lay persons and dentists were analyzed by ANOVA. Significance level was p<0.05. Results: All patients judged that the new dentures improved their appearance (19 patients were very satisfied and 3 satisfied) (p<0.001). Lay persons and dentists also evaluated the post-therapy appearance better than the pre-therapy one (p<0.001). No difference was found between the face evaluation when the pictures were presented pair wise or at random (p>0.05)
Conclusions: The results showed that patients considered their post-therapy facial appearance better than the pre-treatment one and that both lay persons and dentists agreed with this evaluation.