Smile aesthetics criteria assessment between senior students of LUHS Faculty of odontology

Relevance of the problem and aim of the work. Aesthetic Smile determined by the various components. Recognizing the respective elements of a smile, it is important to properly evaluate them, because there is a different perception of beauty. Purpose of the study was to evaluate and compare the perception of senior dental students from Lithuanian University of Health Sciences to different smile characteristics. Material and the methods.Study was carried out among 427 Lithuanian and foreign dental students of of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. Data was collected from the trinary questionnaires. First part included questions on socio-demographic items comprising gender, age, nationality and years of study. Second part consisted of questions about facial aesthetic features. The third part presented 18 different smile photos which were collected from Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Clinic of Orthodontics „Dolphin imaging 11“ (Dolphin Imaging and Management Solution). Smile characteristics were divided into 4 groups: dento-labial analysis; dento-gingival analysis; dental analysis; dental arch analysis. We used a numerical rating scale from 1 to 5; 1 being the best and 5 being the worst aesthetic value. The statistical analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0 the Pearson’s chi-squared, the Mann–Whitney U tests. Results.The study comprised of 333 Lithuanian and 94 foreign dental students including 132 (30.91%) men and 295 (69.09%) women. Statistically significant differences were found between genders: 41.69% of women were focusing on persons teeth when communicating comparing to 32.58% of men (p