Association between personality and morphology of maxillary central incisors

Abstract

Abstract Objectives: to investigate the association between personality and morphology of maxillary central incisors. Materials and methods: 39 males and 85 females (124 participants) answered a questionnaire on their degree of satisfaction with maxillary incisors shape (smile attractiveness self-perception) and were distributed into Satisfied or Dissatisfied groups. The personality type of the participants was determined through the Enneagram Classification Test. Each participant visualized images of oval-, square and triangular-shaped teeth models and chose the most attractive dental morphology (CDM). Six calibrated dentists determined the natural dental morphology (NDM) of each participant through intraoral photographs of the maxillary incisors. The associations among variables were analyzed using the Chi-square test (p<0.05). Results: The CDM results showed 30 oval-, 8 square-, 66 triangular-, 4 oval/triangular-, 8 oval/square-, and 8 triangular/square-shaped maxillary incisors. The NDM analysis resulted in 55 oval-, 52 square-, and 17 triangular-shaped maxillary incisors. In contrast to the Dissatisfied group, a significant association between CDM and NDM was observed in the Satisfied group (p=0.028). The associations between personality and both CDM (p=0.642) and NDM (p=0.096) were not significant. Conclusions: The participant's personality did not influence the morphology of maxillary central incisors; however, the participant’s smile attractiveness self-perception was found the most important factor to choose tooth shape. Patients should be encouraged to participate in their dental esthetic planning. Clinical relevance: Personality is widely considered an important parameter for dental esthetic planning; however, tooth shape is the main factor that should be prioritized to optimize patient satisfaction.