Soft-tissue profile preference

The relative influence on profile preference of the anteroposterior maxillomandibular relation, the lower facial height, and the form of the dorsum of the nose is a source of interesting controversy. In order to obtain more information on this subject, twenty-seven shadow profile photographs were artificially constructed to represent the main characteristics of the nine profile types proposed by Sassouni combined with three different kinds of nose dorsum. Each series of nine profiles was ranked according to the personal esthetic preference of 249 adults (mean age, 23 years). One group of test persons (40 females and 91 males) had no orthodontic background, while another group (49 females and 69 males) had received some orthodontic teaching. Chi-square tests of significance showed no significant difference between male and female participants in esthetic preference for the sex of a profile. Also, the difference in orthodontic knowledge had no significant effect on esthetic preference. Nose dorsum changes induced significant differences only in Class II normal profiles; convex noses were less appreciated. Calculation of average preference values revealed that Class I normal profile types were clearly the favored ones, followed by Class I deep profiles. Open profile types, on the contrary, were obviously the least appreciated. This sequence indicates that, in profile evaluations, vertical profile characteristics could be more important than anteroposterior features and that a lengthening of the soft-tissue profile is not desirable in most cases. Seven weeks after the first ranking of male profiles, 193 persons were retested. The rank correlation values according to Kendall showed that one out of four persons ranked profiles significantly different in the retest.