The Perceptions of Dental Professionals and Laypeople to Facial Aesthetics and Mal-Occlusion in Central India Population

Introduction

Dental professionals play an important role in an individual's appearance which can affect the perception of others that can vary greatly depending on their educational and socioeconomic background.

Aim and Objective

The purpose of this study was to determine an insight of recognizing ability of dental professionals and laypersons toward facial aesthetics with different types of orthodontic malocclusion.

Materials and Methods

A questionnaire-based study was conducted on 90 dental professionals and 90 laypersons. The perceptions differences between groups were assessed using visual analogue scale on 11 photographs. Kolmolgorov-Smirnov was used for normality test.

Results

The perceptions of facial aesthetics showing various malocclusions were significantly different between dental professionals and laypersons.

Conclusion

The dental professionals and layperson perceptions regarding the facial particularly in central Indian population are significantly different for most of the malocclusion types.

Dental and skeletal effects of palatal expansion techniques: a systematic review of the current evidence from systematic reviews and meta-analyses

The aim was to assess the quality and to summarise the findings of the Systematic Reviews (SRs) and Meta-Analyses (MAs) on the dental and skeletal effects of maxillary expansion. Electronic and manual searches have been independently conducted by two investigators, up to February 2015. SRs and MAs on the dentoalveolar and skeletal effects of fixed expanders were included. The methodological quality was assessed using the AMSTAR (A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews). The design of the primary studies included in each SR/MA was assessed with the LRD (Level of Research Design scoring). The evidence for each outcome was rated applying a pre-determined scale. Twelve SRs/MAs were included. The AMSTAR scores ranged from 4 to 10. Two SRs/MAs included only RCTs. The current findings from SRs/MAs support with high evidence a significant increase in the short-term of maxillary dentoalveolar transversal dimensions after Rapid Maxillary Expansion (RME). The same effect is reported with moderate evidence after Slow Maxillary Expansion (SME). However, there is moderate evidence of a non-significant difference between the two expansion modalities concerning the short-term dentoalveolar effects. With both RME and SME, significant increase of skeletal transversal dimension in the short-term is reported, and the skeletal expansion is always smaller than the dentoalveolar. Even though dental relapse to some extent is present, long-term results of the dentoalveolar effects show an increase of the transversal dimension, supported by moderate evidence for RME and low evidence for SME. Skeletal long-term effects are reported only with RME, supported by very low evidence.