Esthetic preferences of European American, Hispanic American, Japanese, and African judges for soft-tissue profiles.
BACKGROUND
Our objectives were to determine whether observer and patient sex and race or ethnicity determine esthetic preferences for lip positions.


METHODS
Four independent panels each consisting of 30 lay judges viewed pretreatment silhouette profiles of 10 European American, 10 Japanese, and 10 African American Angle Class I and Class II orthodontic patients. The panels included European Americans, Hispanic Americans, Japanese, and Africans. Profiles were traced from lateral cephalograms and manipulated so that the lip profile lay on the Ricketts' E-line or at various distances from the E-line from -8 to +4 mm in 2-mm increments. The judges selected the profile that they considered the most attractive and then classified the remaining 6 profiles as either acceptable or unacceptable.


RESULTS
The mean preferred lip positions (mean +/- SD) were -2.58 +/- 1.92 mm for European American, -3.28 +/- 2.26 mm for Hispanic American, -3.45 +/- 1.92 mm for Japanese, and -2.13 +/- 1.95 mm for African judges. The African judges preferred more protrusive profiles compared with the Hispanic American (P <0.01) and Japanese (P <0.001) judges. Patient race or ethnicity and sex also contributed significantly to the judgments of profile esthetics (P <0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Judge race or ethnicity and patient race or ethnicity and sex significantly influence laypersons' standards for lip profile esthetics.
Nomura
Mayumi
M
Department of Orthodontics, Tokyo Dental College, Chiba, Japan. nomura@tdc.ac.jp
Motegi
Etsuko
E
Hatch
John P
JP
Gakunga
Peter T
PT
Ng'ang'a
Peter M
PM
Rugh
John D
JD
Yamaguchi
Hideharu
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology; D044383:Black People / Q000523:psychology; D002508:Cephalometry; D004955:Esthetics, Dental / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology*; D005145:Face / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D007630:Kenya; D008046:Lip / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D008297:Male; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000523:psychology*; D012016:Reference Values; D012737:Sex Factors; D014481:United States; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult; D001741:Black or African American