The Perspective of Dental Aesthetics in Finding a Job as a Dentist: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the influence of dental aesthetics in finding a job as a dentist and the employer’s willingness to interact in personal and professional setting. Ten dental students’ smiling photographs were taken prior to the correction of their dental aesthetic problems. The images were digitally altered to an ideal smile. Two different questionnaires were prepared (Groups A and B) with the images with or without alteration (ideal and non-ideal smile). The images with an ideal smile and non-ideal smile were randomly allocated in each group and assessed by 84 private dental practitioners who has the authority of hiring another dentist in their practice. Four questions were asked on the likelihood of being hired, friendliness, intelligence, and good clinical skills. In general, the students with ideal smile were more likely to be hired (p < 0.05) except for those presented with buccally erupted canine and mild median diastema. Students with ideal smile scored higher in terms of friendliness and intelligence than the non-ideal smile. Most of them did not correlate a smile to an individual’s clinical skills and manual dexterity (p > 0.05). In conclusion, individuals with an ideal smile was graded more friendly and intelligent thus increases the employer’s willingness to interact personally and is more likely to be hired in contrast to a person with a non-ideal smile. Therefore, an aesthetically pleasing smile is one of the factors affecting the chances of a dentist to be hired and improve their personal interaction with people.