Abstract:
Background: Facial esthetic holds significance because of its impact on physical attractiveness and hence in turn it has great impact on man’s daily social interactions. Self-belief and self-confidence, psychological and emotional stability of people can directly correlates with their physical attractiveness and satisfaction with dental looks.
Patient’s satisfaction with their dental appearance is multifactorial/multidimensional phenomenon.
Aim: To identify those factors that can influence patient satisfaction in positive or negative ways and to point out
the desire of patient for dental treatment in future.
Methods: Exactly 160 outdoor patients participated in the cross sectional study visiting diagnostic department of PDH; Lahore. A well-structured questionnaire guided by interviewer was administered in order to identify the
factors significantly influencing the patient contentment in relation to their dental looks. The participants’ perceived need for future dental interventions to improve esthetics has also been evaluated.
Results: Among 160 patients 72 males and 88 females participated, their mean age was 29 years (SD 13.0). Out of 160 patients, 104 (65%) patients were reported as unsatisfied with their general dental looks. 120 patients (75%) were reported unhappy with their color of teeth, 80 (50%) patients were regarded their teeth as poorly aligned, 88(55%) as crowded and 33(20.4%) protruded. Dissatisfaction with their dental looks was found
significantly prevalent among females than in male patients. (75%) patients were desired for tooth whitening
treatment. Results of statistical correlation showed that patients dissatisfaction with their general dental looks was significantly associated with factors like gender (p<0.05) and the factor that their teeth were misaligned (p<0.05).
Conclusions: Majority of patients (F>M) were found unhappy with their dental appearance. Dissatisfaction with
their tooth alignment e.g., patients having protruded teeth had an impact on patient satisfaction. Dissatisfaction
could also correlate directly with tooth color. Age was not found to have an impact on patient satisfaction.
