24 January 2023

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What parameters define the aesthetics of the smile?

Massimo Gagliani

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Doing aesthetics is a professional imperative because patients require it and because we could recommend it without being considered speculators.

Aesthetics is, for good reason, medicine and, consequently, dentistry.

However, the term refers to canons that are very distant from the rules that are acquired with scientific thought in the strict sense. Aesthetics are changeable; just think of costumes and fashion. The aesthetic is declined, with different values, for masculine or feminine, in adults as well as in young people.

All this is to specify how the parameters often used to restore a pleasant smile - I did not deliberately say "aesthetically pleasant" - are very relative and variable.

Here the problem of knowledge arises; not so much that of acquiring it but that, far greater, of forming it. This affects two sectors in our field: dentists and dental technicians.

In Italy, this path has been traced, in its most solid foundations up to what I like to define as "squeamishly refined,” by professionals of superior quality. I believe little has been done to define, on the other hand, the essential requirements. This is justified by a significant study that appeared in a journal that deals with aesthetics. See the link below to learn more.

The different parameters that are used to define the "correctness" or otherwise of a smile have been subjected to the judgment of people with different skills, dentists and non-dentists. The uneven response to many of the questions posed is almost obvious, not only from non-experts. A tangible sign that, in this area, what is beautiful is not beautiful but what people like is beautiful... or what should be liked?

To learn more: Al Hamad, K. Q., et al. (2022). "Analysis of the effect magnitude of different parameters on smile attractiveness." J Esthet Restor Dent 34(6): 888-896.