title: Patients' perspective on dental aesthetics in a South-Eastern European community.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the importance attributed to dental aesthetics by subjects from a Romanian community. In addition, the role played by dental color, the group-distributions based on the self-evaluation of dental color and the previous experience regarding whitening treatments are analysed.
  
  
  METHODS
  A multiple-choice questionnaire was administered to 540 patients in dental offices in Cluj-Napoca, Romania; the subjects were also asked to self-evaluate their dental shade, using a set of images as a comparison. Answers to the questionnaires were statistically analysed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS 13.00 (Pearson's chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, Kendall's tau b).
  
  
  RESULTS
  From the participants, 17.96% were motivated by aesthetic reasons to ask for treatment; most of the patients evaluated their smile as "acceptable" (38.51%) or "having some defects" (29.44%) and were self-included in groups of medium and dark shades (33.7% and 33.89%, respectively). Whilst 22.40% of the subjects considered the dental color as being the most evident defect of their dentition, 39.07% indicated a self-perception of "an abnormal dental shade". A strong correlation between darker self-assessed tooth color-groups and the self-perception of an abnormal tooth color was found (Chi square p≪0.001, Kendall's tau-c=0.44, with p≪0.001). Previous whitening treatments were reported by 8.88% of the subjects.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Among patients who wanted to improve one of their oral functions, the majority requested changes in aesthetics. Dental shade is one of the aspects recognized as problematic by the participants, but nonetheless the percentage of patients who had previously benefited by whitening treatments was moderate.
authors.affiliation: Department of Prosthodontics and Dental Materials, Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. ddudea@umfcluj.ro
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dudea
authors.forename: Jean-François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Lasserre
authors.forename: Camelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alb
authors.forename: Bogdan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Culic
authors.forename: Ioana Sofia
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Pop Ciutrila
authors.forename: Horatiu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Colosi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003116:Color; D003729:Dental Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004955:Esthetics, Dental / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000523:psychology; D057240:Patient Preference; D012383:Romania; D012649:Self Concept; D012904:Smiling; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014073:Tooth Bleaching / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult