COMPARISON OF AESTHETIC PERCEPTION OF SMILE BETWEEN DENTISTS AND GENERAL POPULATION.

Objectives: To compare aesthetic perception of smile between gernal population and dentists by varying lengths of maxillary lateral incisors.
Methods: A photograph of a female smile from frontal view was digitally altered to produce images with varying lengths of maxillary lateral incisor. These images were arranged in descending order; from most attractive to least attractive by the participants. The participants of the study included two groups; first group comprised of Dental Surgeons where as second group consisted of general population.
Results: Comparison of data results between the most attractive and least attractive smile, graded by Dentists and General Population was done using Chi-square test. Evaluation of the results showed a significant difference in aesthetic perception of smile between the patients and general population.
Conclusions: Perception of aesthetics is not similar between the dentists and the general population.