The effects of camera lenses and dental specialties on the perception of smile esthetics

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether different camera lenses and dental specialties can affect the perception of smile esthetics. METHODS: In the first phase of this study, 40 female smile photographs (taken from dental students) were evaluated by six orthodontists, three specialists in restorative dentistry, and three prosthodontists to select the most beautiful smiles. The 20 students with the best smile ranks were again photographed in standard conditions, but this time with two different lenses: Regular and then macro lenses. Each referee evaluated the beauty of the smiles on a visual analog scale. The referees were blinded of the type of lenses, and the images were all coded. The data were analyzed using two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney U-tests (alpha = 0.05, alpha = 0.0167). RESULTS: The lenses led to similar scores of beauty perception (Mann–Whitney P = 0.8). There was no difference between subjective beauty perception of specialties (Kruskal–Wallis P = 0.6). Two-way ANOVA indicated no significant role for lenses (P = 0.1750), specialties (P = 0.7677), or their interaction (P = 0.7852). CONCLUSION: The photographs taken by a regular lens and then digitally magnified can be as appealing as close-up photographs taken by a macro lens. Experts in different specialties (orthodontics, prosthodontics, and restorative dentistry) showed similar subjective judgments of smile beauty.