[Investigation on facial profile preferences of orthodontic patients]

To investigate facial profile preferences of orthodontic patients and determine whether the patient's age and sex were influential factors in the esthetic perception for providing reference for clinical practice.

Profile digital photographs of each patient were used. Changes in facial convexity were established by altering the position of mandible incrementally with Photoshop 7.0. Thus profile images of various degrees of mandiblular anteroposterior discrepancy for each patient was generated. Then an electronic questionnaire was designed and administered to investigate tolerable boundary values for mandibular retrognathism, tolerable boundary values for mandibular prognathism and most pleasing profiles of 203 subjects (average age 19.2±6.0 years; 70 males, 133 females). Differences between male and female profiles in the esthetic perception of patients were analyzed by Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed ranks test. Comparison of esthetics perception for male and female profiles regarding patient's sex and age was made by Wilcoxon rank sum test of two independent samples. All statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 17.0 software package.

The zone of acceptability of facial convexity was 168°-180° for male model and 160°-172° for female model. The most pleasing profile was 172° for male and 168° for female. There was no significant difference between male and female patients in facial profile preferences (P>0.05). The differences in facial profile preferences between adult group and immature group were statistically significant (P<0.05). In the comparison of age groups, the adult group preferred bigger facial convexity angles than immature group for male and female retrognathia profile, male prognathia profile and male most pleasing profile.

The zone of acceptability of facial convexity and the most pleasing profile exist in patients' esthetic perception of profile. There is difference between male and female profiles in the esthetic perception. The facial profile preferences of orthodontic patients are influenced by age, not by sex.