Aesthetic perception and factors associated with dentofacial midline awareness.

Abstract

To examine orthodontic patients' aesthetic perception and factors likely to influence the detection of a dentofacial midline discrepancy. An electronic questionnaire was designed to invite an orthodontic population to evaluate and select an ideal value, a detectable value and a tolerable value from a series of images exhibiting a dentofacial midline discrepancy. A binary logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate possible influencing factors. A barely discernabe dentofacia midline discrepancy ranged between -0.020 +/- 0.38 mm. The personal characteristics of the evaluators appeared to have no appreciable effect at this level. A detectable value was 1.33 +/- 0.63 mm and the education level, orthodontic history and malocclusion severity were influencing factors amongst the assessors. A tolerable value was 2.63 +/- 0.94 mm and influencing factors included the education level and the malocclusion severity of the evaluators. The barely discernable value, detectable value and tolerable value could be used to quantify the aesthetic perception of orthodontic patients regarding a dentofacia midline discrepancy. The aesthetic perception was influenced by observer education level, orthodontic history and personal malocclusion severity, but not by age, gender, and subjective evaluation of dentofacial appearance.