Denture vs Natural vs Supernormal Smile: A dentist's perception
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Abstract
Introduction:Complete dentures have been a commonly used treatment modality for the management of completely edentulous patients. Patients have expressed a high level of satisfaction with complete denture construction techniques.
Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate the dentist’s perception on the esthetic choice of completely edentulous patients of three different age groups young, middle and old respectively.
Material and Methods: Dentures were fabricated for 6 patients - young female, young male, middle age female, middle age male, old female , old male respectively with 3 denture concepts in mind- natural, supernormal and denture look respectively. A questionnaire with the patient photographs were circulated amongst dentists and their perception of esthetic look was analysed and Chi-square test and frequency analysis was used to explore the relationship between the variables.
Results: In the present study it was observed that in the group of young females the most preferred smile type was natural smile(72.6%) while the least was the denture look(6.16%).In the group of young males most dentists advised the supernormal look(50.0%) followed by the natural look. Amongst the middle aged females the denture look(48.6%) was most popularly voted while the natural look and the supernormal look(24%) were similarly preferred.The middle aged men looked best in supernormal look (44%) according to most doctors while the look that least suited them was the denture look. The old aged women and men both looked best in the natural look (41% and 50% respectively).
Conclusion:The authors observed that the esthetic perception of dentists vary for each group depending on the age or gender of the patient. Although no particular smile type can be assigned to each gender or age group, it should be noted that with the advent of fixed prosthodontics all patients shouldnt be blindly given the denture look, but the teeth arrangement can be done to suit the patient’s esthetic profile satisfying function at the same time.