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Gender, Age, and Psychosocial Context of the Perception of Facial Esthetics
Author(s) -
Tole Nikoleta,
Lajnert Vlatka,
Kovacevic Pavicic Daniela,
Spalj Stjepan
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of esthetic and restorative dentistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.919
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1708-8240
pISSN - 1496-4155
DOI - 10.1111/jerd.12064
Subject(s) - psychosocial , biopsychosocial model , perception , attractiveness , psychology , context (archaeology) , perspective (graphical) , developmental psychology , facial expression , social environment , human physical appearance , orthodontics , medicine , communication , psychiatry , paleontology , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , computer science , political science , psychoanalysis , law , biology
Objective To explore the effects of gender, age, and psychosocial context on the perception of facial esthetics. Methods The study included 1,444 C aucasian subjects aged 16 to 85 years. Two sets of color photographs illustrating 13 male and 13 female C aucasian facial type alterations, representing different skeletal and dentoalveolar components of sagittal maxillary–mandibular relationships, were used to estimate the facial profile attractiveness. The examinees graded the profiles based on a 0 to 10 numerical rating scale. The examinees graded the profiles of their own sex only from a social perspective, whereas opposite sex profiles were graded both from the social and emotional perspective separately. Results The perception of facial esthetics was found to be related to the gender, age, and psychosocial context of evaluation ( p < 0.05). The most attractive profiles to men are the orthognathic female profile from the social perspective and the moderate bialveolar protrusion from the emotional perspective. The most attractive profile to women is the orthognathic male profile, when graded from the social aspect, and the mild bialveolar retrusion when graded from the emotional aspect. The age increase of the assessor results in a higher attractiveness grade. Conclusions When planning treatment that modifies the facial profile, the clinician should bear in mind that the perception of facial profile esthetics is a complex phenomenon influenced by biopsychosocial factors. Clinical Significance This study allows a better understanding of the concept of perception of facial esthetics that includes gender, age, and psychosocial context.