The Perceptions of Dental Professionals and Laypeople to Facial Aesthetics and Mal-Occlusion in Central India Population

INTRODUCTION: Dental professionals play an important role in an individual’s appearance which can affect the perception of others that can vary greatly depending on their educational and socioeconomic background. AIM AND OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine an insight of recognizing ability of dental professionals and laypersons toward facial aesthetics with different types of orthodontic malocclusion. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire-based study was conducted on 90 dental professionals and 90 laypersons. The perceptions differences between groups were assessed using visual analogue scale on 11 photographs. Kolmolgorov-Smirnov was used for normality test. RESULTS: The perceptions of facial aesthetics showing various malocclusions were significantly different between dental professionals and laypersons. CONCLUSION: The dental professionals and layperson perceptions regarding the facial particularly in central Indian population are significantly different for most of the malocclusion types.