Abstract
The present work strives to answer the questions about the impact of diastema of different width and shape on the evaluation of smile attractiveness, and whether there are differences related to age and gender of evaluators, and differences between lay public and experts, and whether there are different perceptions of a face photograph and a smile detail. A digital photo of a smiling young woman with a minor diastema was adjusted so that the diastema was closed, widened, and of different shapes.
Thus there were made 10 variants of the same smiling face, out of which details of smile were cut. Photographs became a part of web questionnaire. 273 respondents evaluated attractiveness on the scale; respondents were subdivided according to gender, age and profession.
The diastema was significantly better evaluated in the photograph of a face, in comparison with a smile detail. The smile with diastema of 0,5 mm was still seen as attractive.
However, it was evaluated less positively than the smile without diastema. The evaluation was stricter with wider diastema.
To improve patient's smile attractiveness, it is recommended to close diastema over 1 mm during orthodontic treatment.