Assessment of dental and facial aesthetics in adolescents.

The Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN) is currently widely used for clinical, as well as epidemiological purposes. The Aesthetic Component (AC) of this index focuses on dental aesthetics and does not include facial aesthetics. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether dental aesthetics as measured by the AC of the IOTN correlates with facial aesthetics. Facial attractiveness of 69 males and 75 females was scored on facial photographs at two different ages (11-13 years and 14-16 years). Scoring of the AC of the IOTN was undertaken on the dental casts. Increments between the observations at the two ages were calculated. To assess the association between scores of dental and facial aesthetics, correlation coefficients were calculated. There was a highly significant influence of orthodontic treatment on facial and dental aesthetic scores in the group which was not treated orthodontically at the first observation, but was treated orthodontically at the second observation. No correlation, however, was found between the increments in the facial aesthetic score and those in the dental aesthetic score. The results indicate that facial and dental aesthetics are influenced by different factors, and both should be evaluated when judging dentofacial aesthetics.