A comparative assessment of dento-facial aesthetics among dental, medical, nursing and physiotherapy students in a college of health sciences

Abstract

There is increased awareness and concerns about dentofacial aesthetics in most population. We sought to determine the self-assessment of dental aesthetics and perceived treatment need among a group of health professions trainees and compare the same with the researcher’s report using the Aesthetic component (AC) of Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN). This was a cross-sectional study of undergraduates in our College of Health Sciences. The researcher was calibrated. Subjects supplied their socio-demographic details, responses on perception of their teeth, and smile on a self-administered questionnaire. Additionally, respondents selected and documented a picture that best matches theirs from the AC of the IOTN chart, while the researcher did the same and compared the scores. Data were analyzed using the SPSS version 16.0.: 121 students were studied. 59% were previous dental clinic attendees. The majority (80.2%) usually females rated their smile pleasant. 69.4% expressed satisfaction with the appearance of their teeth. Male and female subjects differed significantly in the ratings of their smile and teeth; with significantly more females rating themselves better than average. Subjects’ scores differ significantly from the researcher’s; most subjects rated their occlusion better especially females (p<0.001), physiotherapy students(p=0.0016), and previous clinic attendees(p=0.02). The odds of correct self-assessment increased by 1.6 with respondents' gender and department.: While dental students are well suited for dento-facial aesthetic assessment, there is a need to introduce aspects of dental aesthetics and orthodontic treatment need appraisal among other oral health subjects to curricula in college of health science.