Patients' and dentists' perception of dental appearance.
The purpose of this study was to compare the patients' and dentists' perception of dental appearance. Based on internationally accepted guidelines about dental esthetics, a questionnaire was developed to measure "dental appearance" (QDA). Eleven items defined a QDA sum score (0 = "absolutely satisfied", 44 = "absolutely dissatisfied"). The QDA was completed by 16 patients (eight women, eight men, mean age 63 ± 9 years) before and after a complete oral rehabilitation. Forty-two dentists evaluated the esthetics before and after rehabilitation on a visual analog scale (VAS, 0 = "absolutely unesthetic", 100 = "absolutely esthetic"). The patients' quoting showed a significant esthetic improvement (QDA sum score) from 22 before treatment to 3.5 after treatment (P ≤ 0.001). Although most of the dentists judged an improvement in most of the patients dental appearances, no significant correlation could be found between patients' and dentists' judgment regarding dental appearance (r = -0.13-0.53, P > 0.05). When evaluating the influence of age, gender, and experience on rating dental appearance, no significant differences (P > 0.05) could be found.
Department of Prosthodontics, Propaedeutics and Dental Materials, Dental School, Christian-Albrechts University at Kiel, Kiel, Germany. cmehl@proth.uni-kiel.de
Christian J
CJ
Mehl
Sönke
S
Harder
Matthias
M
Kern
Stefan
S
Wolfart
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003815:Dentists / Q000523:psychology*; D004955:Esthetics, Dental / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009065:Mouth Rehabilitation / Q000523:psychology*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D023861:Photography, Dental; D012737:Sex Factors; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires