An attractive smile – the power of first impression

Introduction: In this study, we aimed to verify whether different levels of maxillary central incisors incisal edges and gingival display affects influence the perception of smile attractiveness and this perception according to groups of orthodontists, dentists, orthodontic patients, and prosthodontists. Methods: A frontal photographs of the smile of 1 man and 1 woman showing the gingival contours of the incisors and the canines were digitally altered, creating steps from 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2.0 mm, with and without gingival exposure. The 20 pictures were shown in random order to 240 evaluators divided into 4 groups who were asked to provide attractiveness scores on visual analog scales. Results: Both the steps (P\0.001) and the gingival exposure (P\0.05) had statistically significant influences on the evaluations in all groups. There was also a statistically significant difference (P\0.001) between the evaluations of orthodontists with the dentists and orthodontic patients groups. Conclusions: The most accepted vertical relationship of incisor borders was the 1.0-mm step. There were significant differences in the evaluation of orthodontists when compared with dentists, orthodontic patients groups, and no significant difference was detected between orthodontists and prosthodontists groups. The gingival display altered significantly the esthetic perception of the smiles evaluated. There were significant differences between the evaluations of the smiles of the man and the woman.