To assess the level of satisfaction of medical students with their own dental appearance.
METHODS:
A cross sectional descriptive survey of medical students in the College of Medicine, University of Lagos. Participants were selected by stratified sampling and simple random selection in each category. A total of 250 self administered questionnaires were distributed amongst male and female students in 200- 600 levels. Data was analyzed electronically using Epi-Info 2005 software.
RESULTS:
A response rate of 97.6 %( 244 students) was obtained. A high rate of satisfaction with overall dental appearance was observed as 80.8% of participants were either ‘satisfied' or highly satisfied' with their dental appearance.
Majority of students who perceived their tooth colour to be yellow were either ‘dissatisfied'(50.7%) or ‘highly dissatisfied'(11.9%) while students who perceived their tooth size to be normal were either ‘satisfied'(46.3%) or ‘highly satisfied'(53.7%) with this size.
Majority(98.4%) of respondents were ‘satisfied' with the shape of their teeth.
Most students were either ‘satisfied' (47.5%) or ‘highly satisfied' (43%) with their tooth arrangement irrespective of how they perceived this arrangement i.e. crowded, spaced, well aligned.
CONCLUSION:
Medical students are generally satisfied with their dental appearance.