Acceptability of dental appearance in a group of Finnish 16- to 25-year-olds.
OBJECTIVE
To define a grade in the Aesthetic Component (AC) of the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN) that would differentiate between esthetically acceptable and unacceptable occlusions and that would also be both subjectively and objectively meaningful.


METHODS
Dental appearance and self-perceived orthodontic treatment need were analyzed in a group of Finnish young adults (171 males, 263 females, age range 16-25 years). Subjective data were gathered using a questionnaire, and the respondents were requested to score their dental appearance on a visual analog type 10-grade scale. Professional assessment of dental appearance was performed by two orthodontists using the AC of the IOTN. The cutoff value between esthetically acceptable and unacceptable occlusions was defined using receiver operating characteristic curves.


RESULTS
Sixty-six percent of orthodontically treated and 74% of the untreated respondents were satisfied with their own dental appearance. Every third respondent reported one or more disturbing traits in their dentition. The most frequently expressed reason for dissatisfaction was crowding; girls expressed dissatisfaction more often than boys did (P = .005). A self-perceived treatment need was reported infrequently by 8% of orthodontically treated and 6% of untreated respondents. In the logistic regression analysis, self-perceived need for orthodontic treatment was the only significant factor explaining dissatisfaction with own dental esthetics. On the applied scales, grades 1 and 2 fulfilled the criteria for satisfactory dental esthetics.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that the AC grade 3 could serve as a cutoff value between esthetically acceptable and unacceptable occlusions.
Department of Oral Development and Orthodontics, Institute of Dentistry, University of Turku, Lemminkäisenkatu 2, 20520 Turku, Finland. anlisve@utu.fi
Anna-Liisa
AL
Svedström-Oristo
Terttu
T
Pietilä
Ilpo
I
Pietilä
Tero
T
Vahlberg
Pentti
P
Alanen
Juha
J
Varrela
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D019540:Area Under Curve; D003970:Diastema / Q000473:pathology; D004955:Esthetics, Dental; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D007180:Incisor / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008310:Malocclusion / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology*; D020380:Needs Assessment; D009971:Orthodontics, Corrective / Q000523:psychology; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012372:ROC Curve; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D055815:Young Adult