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Perceptions of dental aesthetics in the United States and Nigeria
Author(s) -
Otuyemi Olayinka D.,
Ogunyinka Adeola,
Dosumu Oluwole,
Cons Naham C.,
Jenny Joanna,
Kohout Frank J.,
Jakobsen Jane
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
community dentistry and oral epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.061
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1600-0528
pISSN - 0301-5661
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0528.1998.tb01981.x
Subject(s) - nigerians , medicine , perception , dentistry , index (typography) , population , aesthetics , orthodontics , environmental health , psychology , law , philosophy , neuroscience , world wide web , political science , computer science
– The standard dental aesthetic index (DAI) is an orthodontic treatment need index based on perceptions of dental aesthetics in the United States. It is a regression equation that links perceptions of the social acceptability of dental aesthetics with the objective intraoral measurements of ten occlusal traits. For the index to be universally acceptable, the perceptions of dental aesthetics in other countries must be similar to those of the United States. This study was designed to determine whether the perceptions of dental aesthetics of Nigerian students are similar to those of different groups of the US population. The same 25 stimuli (photographs of dental configurations, a subset of the 200 stimuli used in deriving the standard DAI equation) were rated for dental aesthetics by Nigerian students. Their ratings were compared with ratings of the same 25 stimuli by US parents, students and orthodontists. Spearman rank‐order correlations ranged from 0.75 to 0.84. These correlations were highly significant ( P < 0.0001), and showed that the perceptions of dental aesthetics of Nigerian students were very similar to those of the US groups. The study therefore concluded that standard DAI could be used as a screening tool and without modification in epidemiological surveys among Nigerians.