title: Canting of the occlusal plane: perceptions of dental professionals and laypersons.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine if canting of the occlusal plane influences esthetic evaluation of the smile among orthodontists, dentists and laypersons.
  
  
  METHODS
  A frontal photo of a smile with 0 occlusal plane canting in relation to the bipupillary plane was modified using Adobe Photoshop C3 (Adobe Systems Inc, San José, California) to generate two images with occlusal plane inclinations of 2 and 4 . The three images were evaluated esthetically by orthodontists (n=40) general dentists (n=40) and laypersons (n=40). Each image was awarded a score as follows: 1=esthetically acceptable; 2=moderately acceptable; 3=esthetically unacceptable. Evaluators also placed the three images in order in preference. Data were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis (p<0.05) and the Mann-Whitney tests, applying the Bonferroni Correction (p<0.016).
  
  
  RESULTS
  No significant differences (p> 0.05) were found between the three groups for 0 and 2 cants (median for orthodontists=1; general dentists=1; laypersons=1). Orthodontists (median score=3) made evaluations of the image with 4 occlusal plane that were significantly different from general dentists (median=2) and laypersons (median=2). All three groups put the 0 image in first place in order of esthetic acceptability, the 2 image in second place and the 4 image in third place. Orthodontists placed the 0 image in first place with significantly greater frequency (p<0.016) than laypersons.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Occlusal plane canting of 0 and 2 were evaluated as esthetically acceptable by the three groups. The 4 occlusal plane cant was evaluated more negatively by orthodontists than by general dentists and laypersons. All three groups placed the 0 image in first place of esthetic acceptability, 2 in second place and 4 in third. Orthodontists put the 0 image in first place with significantly greater frequency than laypersons.
authors.affiliation: Orthodontic Teaching Unit, Dental Clinic, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Amparo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Olivares
authors.forename: Ascensión
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vicente
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jacobo
authors.forename: Sara-María
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Molina
authors.forename: Alicia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.forename: Luis-Alberto
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Bravo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003766:Dental Occlusion; D003813:Dentistry; D004954:Esthetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009970:Orthodontics