General well-being as an important co-factor of self-assessment of dental appearance.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to correlate the general well-being of patients and their judgment about their dental appearance.


METHODS
Based on internationally accepted guidelines regarding dental esthetics, a questionnaire was developed to measure subjective assessments of dental appearance. Fourteen items defined an esthetic sum score (0 = satisfied; 56 = dissatisfied). Further, general well-being was evaluated with a long-established and highly reliable test. Eighty participants were included (47 women, 33 men). Participants were.drawn from 4 different groups (n = 20): natural dentition (group N), fixed partial dentures (group F), removable partial dentures (group R), and patients who had an esthetic problem with their teeth (group P).


RESULTS
Seventy-five participants showed a normal well-being. Five participants showed a depressive state and formed a new group (group D). The medians of the sum scores (25th, 75th percentile) were: group N: 12 (10, 14); group F: 14 (8, 29); group R: 14 (9, 27); group P: 23 (18, 35); group D: 30 (26, 35). Significant differences were found between groups N and P, as well as between group D and groups N, F, and R.


CONCLUSIONS
Because of the significant difference between groups N and P, basis validation of the sum score was achieved. Further, self-assessments of dental appearance appeared to be more negative for participants with a depressive state compared with the other groups. In clinical studies, selection bias can be prevented by using a test that measures well-being to verify if a study sample includes a normal number of depressive subjects and therefore represents the general population.
Wolfart
Stefan
S
Department of Prosthodontics, Propaedeutics and Dental Materials, School of Dentistry, Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel, Germany. swolfart@proth.uni-kiel.de
Quaas
Anne Catrin
AC
Freitag
Sandra
S
Kropp
Peter
P
Gerber
Wolf-Dieter
WD
Kern
Matthias
M
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003829:Denture, Partial / Q000523:psychology; D003863:Depression; D004955:Esthetics, Dental / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012649:Self Concept; D012647:Self-Assessment; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires