Influence of children's dentofacial appearance on teacher expectations

The purpose of the study was to determine whether the presence of dentofacial anomaly in a child would unfavourably bias a schoolteacher's expectations of the child's scholastic potential, social relationships or personality. Black and white portrait photographs of an attractive boy and girl and an unattractive boy and girl were obtained and modified so that for each face, five different photographic versions were available. In each version, the child's face was standardized except that a different dentofacial arrangement was demonstrated. These were normal incisors, prominent incisors, missing lateral incisor, severely crowded incisors and unilateral cleft lip. Each photograph was attached to a school record card which presented a standardized educational history of an average pupil. The record cards were evaluated by 320 schoolteachers, uninformed as to the true nature of the investigation, and their assessments recorded on a questionnaire. The experimental procedure was such that the effect and interaction of different levels of facial attractiveness, different dentofacial arrangements, sex of photographed child, and sex of teacher could be analysed. The hypothesis, that children's faces with a normal dental appearance or high background facial attractiveness would gain preferential bias in teacher expectations, was not supported.