Gender aesthetics in the natural dentition

This paper questions whether the size, position and angulation of upper anterior teeth 'reflect' the gender of a patient. Forty-six casts of natural teeth were given to 11 experts. The experts were asked to assess the gender of the patients. Overall the intra-observer agreement was fair (kappa = 0.33). Inter-observer agreement was fair (kappa = 0.23). On average 55% of casts taken from men were classified as 'male' and 55% of the casts taken from women were classified as 'female'. It is concluded, on the basis of this study, experts can not distinguish gender by the visual assessment of upper anterior teeth on casts alone.