The Influence of the Smile on the Perceived Facial Type Esthetics

The objective of this study was to determine if the smile would influence the facial types esthetics perception for dentists, specialists, and laypeople. The null hypotheses for this study were that the smile has no effect on the perceived facial esthetics of different facial types.

A photograph of an attractive female face with an attractive smile was captured and manipulated using computer software, which was used to produce changes in the smile and facial type of the female face. Two sets of photographs were developed. The first set is composed of three photos showing mesofacial, dolichofacial, and brachyfacial faces; on these photos the smiles were masked intentionally. On the second set, the smile was revealed in the three face types (mesofacial, dolichofacial, and brachyfacial faces); this results in three smiling photos, where each showed a facial type with the same smile. These photos (6 photos in total) were rated by the participants; two hundred participants were recruited, 50 general dentists, 50 specialist dentists, and 100 laypeople.

The three groups (dentists, specialists, and laypeople) rated the mesofacial face as the highest (p value < 0.01) (64.48, 76.12, and 60.68, respectively), the mesofacial face was the only face that showed a significant difference between the three groups ratings (p value<0.01), and this significant difference disappeared when we compared the smiling photos for the mesofacial face (p value>0.01).

Mesofacial face is considered to be the most attractive face in comparison to dolichofacial and brachyfacial faces. Facial type should not be looked at separately from the smile as the smile might influence the esthetics perception of the facial type.