Profile preferences of Korean American orthodontic patients and orthodontists.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to determine differences in preference for Korean American facial profiles among Korean American orthodontic patients with 2 levels of acculturation, Asian American orthodontists, and Caucasian orthodontists.


METHODS
Images of 1 male and 1 female Korean American adult were animated to move parts of the faces from an extreme retrusive position to an extreme protrusive position by using the Perceptometrics computer program. Three movies were created of the nose, lips, and chin for each image. Three groups of judges, ie, 18 Korean American orthodontic patients, 17 Asian orthodontists, and 18 Caucasian orthodontists selected the most pleasing position and the zone of acceptability as a measure of tolerance.


RESULTS
Statistically significant differences were found between Caucasian orthodontists and Korean American orthodontic patients for the most pleasing and midpoint of acceptability positions of female nose and male chin, with no differences in the zone of acceptability position among the groups.


CONCLUSIONS
In general, the Korean American orthodontic patients preferred a more protrusive nose on the female image and more retrusive chin on the male image than Caucasian orthodontists for the most pleasing and midpoint of acceptability positions, with similar zone of acceptability for all 3 groups.
Park
Yoon S
YS
Department of Orthodontics, University of Illinois at Chicago, 60612-7211, USA.
Evans
Carla A
CA
Viana
Grace
G
Anderson
Nina K
NK
Giddon
Donald B
DB
D000069:Acculturation; D000328:Adult; D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology*; D001828:Body Image; D003196:Computer Graphics; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003815:Dentists / Q000523:psychology; D004955:Esthetics, Dental / Q000523:psychology*; D005145:Face / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D014481:United States; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology