Influence of certain tooth characteristics on the esthetic evaluation of a smile

OBJECTIVE: To assess the influence of certain dental characteristics on the perception of smile esthetics by undergraduate dentistry students. METHODS: Ten digital photographs of a woman's smile were modified using Adobe Photoshop software. The following changes were performed: stain removal; incisal edge straightening; gingival leveling; closure of black triangles. A group of 60 undergraduate dental students evaluated the original photograph and the altered images using a visual analog scale to evaluate smile esthetics. Intraexaminer agreement was checked for 30 examiners using the Student t ...