title: Dynamic evaluation of anterior dental alignment in a sample of 8- to 11-year-old children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe perceptions related to different anterior dental alignments in a sample of 106 children aged between 8- and 11-years-old.
  
  
  METHODS
  We employed dynamic media (videos) showing a smile in four different arrangements (ideal incisal occlusion - N, median diastema - D, incisal crowding - A, protruding incisors - P), with and without general contextual attractiveness.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The perception is the same both for the whole face and for the frontal smile alone and there are no significant differences between the answers from male and female interviews. Smiles with normal alignment gain higher scores for esthetics and are associated with more positive qualities. In contrast, smiles with proclined and crowded teeth obtain lower scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Analysis of the results showed that there are no significant differences between perceptions, sensations and judgments related to smiles presented either as part of the whole face or in only the lower facial third: general facial attractiveness does not influence evaluations of the smile. The study confirms the general tendency to award higher scores to smiles with normal alignment.
authors.affiliation: Postgraduate school of Orthodontics of Ferrara, via Montebello, 31 Ferrara 44100, Italy. lulombardo@tiscali.it
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lombardo
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Berveglieri
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Guarneri
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Siciliani
mesh_terms: D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003970:Diastema; D004955:Esthetics, Dental / Q000523:psychology*; D005145:Face / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008310:Malocclusion / Q000523:psychology*; D023861:Photography, Dental; D012737:Sex Factors; D012904:Smiling; D012928:Social Desirability; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014741:Video Recording