Soft tissue profile in Anatolian Turkish adults: Part II. Comparison of different soft tissue analyses in the evaluation of beauty

Abstract

This study examined the soft tissue analyses of Steiner, Ricketts, Burstone, Sushner, Holdaway, and Merrifield to evaluate orthodontists' perceptions of Anatolian Turkish adults' beauty. Forty-four subjects (21 females, mean age, 21.35 years; 23 males, mean age, 21.41 years) with Angle Class I occlusal relationship, and normal anteroposterior (ANB angle, 2degrees +/- 2degrees) and vertical (SN-MP angle, 32degrees +/- 5degrees ) skeletal relationships were selected from the dental students at the University of Istanbul. The material consisted of lateral cephalometric radiographs and facial-profile slides of these subjects. Ten linear and 6 angular measurements were analyzed on each radiograph, and the facial profiles were judged as poor, fair, good, or excellent by 6 raters. After the scoring, 34 subjects (16 females and 18 males) were placed in the unattractive group, and 10 subjects (5 females and 5 males) were placed in the attractive group. The significance of the differences between the groups was studied by means of the Mann-Whitney U test. The results demonstrated that persons having a high mandibular plane angle, a small nose, protrusive lips, and a retrusive profile were selected as attractive. Among the 7 esthetic lines used to evaluate the soft tissue profile, only Ricketts' norms for upper and lower lips corresponded to the values we found for attractive, profiles.