Facial profile perceptions in a group of South African blacks

Each society has its own general perceptions of facial aesthetics and one study show that there is significant agreement among populations regarding facial preferences. People of African decent generally have a bimaxillary protrusive profile which in some orthodontic circles is regarded as a malocclusion that should be treated.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate Black South African student perceptions on the facial profile of Black South African subjects with bimaxillary protrusion.

Silhouetted lateral facial profiles of 30 Black South Africans with bimaxillary dento-alveolar protrusion were subjected to an initial evaluation process by 128 students extracted from secondary schools, junior tertiary and senior tertiary university institutions. These evaluators were asked to select the 5 most attractive and 5 most unattractive profiles. Due to a tied ranking 13 instead of 10 of the 30 profiles were selected. The 13 selected profiles were subjected to further evaluation by a group of 605 evaluators from the same educational institutions that had to select five profiles in the categories of the most attractive, attractive, average, unattractive and most unattractive profile. The results were subjected to pairwise comparisons with a Fisher extact test and Z-test for normal approximation of the binomial distribution.

From the first evaluation process the average age and gender distribution for the evaluators were 21.8 yrs (75 females and 51 males). The most attractive profiles chosen were nos. 27 (12.19%), 11 (6.88%), 13 (6.88%) and 8 (6.56%). Profiles nos. 2, 12 and 14 (6.25%) were chosen in equal frequency as the fifth most attractive profile. The most unattractive profiles were nos. 18 (9.38%), 29 (8.91%), 22 (7.81%), 30 (7.34%), 6 (6.56%) and 7 (6.56%). The second evaluation process had an age and gender distribution of 21.6 yrs (307 females and 275 males). Profiles no. 1 was chosen as the most attractive, no. 11 as attractive, no. 5 as average and no.6 as unattractive and most unattractive. There was no statistical significant difference between male and female profile preferences. There was a highly statistical significant difference for the most attractive and most unattractive profile. A statistical significant difference was also found between the scholars and the senior tertiary university students in the category of the most unattractive profiles.

Profile no. 1 was chosen as the most attractive profile. Results indicate that Black South Africans from this sample prefer exaggerated bimaxillary protrusive profiles with lip competence and normal overjet/overbite relationships.